‘Leaving Neverland’ director says Michael Jackson biopic “flips the truth on its head” in scolding review
Leaving Neverland director Dan Reed has criticised the new Michael Jackson biopic, Michael, after watching the film.
Reed’s 2019 documentary explored sexual abuse allegations made against Jackson by Wade Robson and James Safechuck when they were both young children.
Michael concludes in 1988, five years before the first sexual abuse allegation was made against the singer by Evan Chandler, who accused the star of sexually abusing his 13-year-old son.
Prior to seeing the film, Reed accused Jackson of being “worse than Jeffrey Epstein“, and said of the Anthony Fuqua-directed biopic, “How can you tell an authentic story about Michael Jackson without ever mentioning the fact that he was seriously accused of being a child molester? I just don’t really see it.”
Now, after watching the film, Reed has given his damning feedback, telling Variety, “I went last weekend. I watched it. The first part of Michael as a child, I could kind of buy that. But as soon as we go to the adult Jackson, played by his nephew Jaafar, that burst my bubble.”
The British director added of the film’s portrayal of Jackson, “He becomes this waxwork who performs these jukebox songs, but there’s zero insight into what makes Jackson tick. He’s this asexual plastic action doll of a figure in the film.”
Reed then said that Jackson’s relationship with children is “completely distorted” in Michael, due to him being shown to be “an eccentric, overgrown child, which we know is not the full story”.
One scene in particular, which depicts Jackson visiting cancer-stricken children in a hospital, upset Reed, who said it “made me feel really icky” and “suggests that Jackson’s engagement with children was entirely benign and motivated by nothing but philanthropy”.
He added, “The film just flips the truth on its head — black is white, white is black, and two and two make five — and none of the people who go and see the movie will ever question that, but it’s a movie that’s impossible to take seriously as a counter-narrative to Leaving Neverland.”
While Michael reportedly did originally include the allegations made in 1993 by Chandler, these were later cut, and a reshoot commenced due to a financial settlement in 1994, which prohibited the allegations from being explored in the film.
However, Reed isn’t buying that version of events, stating, “That doesn’t stack up either because Wade and James never reached a settlement. If you want to create a retort to Leaving Neverland, why not make a direct retort to the story it tells, which is the story of Wade Robson and James Safechuck?”
Despite the controversy surrounding Michael, it enjoyed the biggest box office start in history for a music biopic over the weekend, grossing $217 million.
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