Michael

Director: Antoine Fuqua
Starring: Jaafar Jackson, Colman Domingo, Nia Long, Miles Teller, KeiLyn Durrel Jones, Laura Harrier, Juliano Valdi, Joseph David-Jones, Nathaniel Logan McIntyre, Rhyan Hill, Judah Edwards, Jamal R. Henderson, Jayden Harville, Tre Horton, Jaylen Lyndon Hunter, Jessica Sula, Mike Myers, Kendrick Sampson, Larenz Tate, Liv Symone, Deon Cole
Running Time: 127 min.
Rating: PG-13

★★★ ½ (out of ★★★★)   

Despite widespread opinion that musical biopics are interchangeable, most can actually be distinguished by how far filmmakers stretch the truth and the level of devotion they hold for their subject. Director Antoine Fuqua's Michael proves this by delivering what's partially a tribute to unparalleled talent, but also an acknowledgment of his sad upbringing, both of which inform the superstar he later becomes. At one point he's told they'll never be anyone like him, and for better or worse, we realize just how accurate that statement is. More enamored with his fans than the idea of fame, he was pushed too far too soon, launching a career that reshaped music, but also destroyed him in the process. 

Michael never stood a chance at a normal life, and while Fuqua predictably caught heat for omitting the serious allegations leveled against the singer, he didn't have much choice, reshaping his third act to clear the legal hurdles required in getting this made. But it wouldn't fit the tone or timeline anyway, which revolves around a rags-to-riches story that helps explain why it's hard to find anyone who doesn't call themselves a fan, regardless of age, race, gender or nationality. And this captures that with spectacular musical sequences and a pair of performances in the title role that avoid the groans and awkward laughs you'd expect to associate with the project.

It's 1966 in Gary, Indiana and steel laborer Joseph Jackson (Colman Domingo) forms and manages a boy bond consisting of sons Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon and 10-year-old prodigy and lead vocalist Michael (Juliano Valdi). Collectively dubbed the Jackson 5 by the strict, domineering Joseph, he works them into the ground as they perform gigs across the country, catching the attention of Motown record executive Suzanne De Passe (Laura Harrier). But with the Jacksons topping charts and the family relocating to an Encino, California mansion, label founder Berry Gordy (Larenz Tate) sees even bigger money in Michael as a solo act.

In 1978 when an adult Michael (Jaafar Jackson) releases his first solo album "Off The Wall" for Epic Records producer Quincy Jones (Kendrick Sampson), Joseph starts tightening the powerful grip he holds over his youngest son who yearns to break away and assert his creative freedom as an adult. With the support of mom Katherine (Nina Long), friend and bodyguard Bill (KeiLyn Durrel Jones) and loyal attorney John Branca (Miles Teller) he does just that, emerging as a pop culture phenomenon. But Michael's success comes at a cost, as he struggles to completely free himself from his father's grip.

From an early age, Michael is told by Joseph that life is made up of "winners" and "losers" and he'll have to decide which he wants to be. It's ironic advice coming from someone who couldn't be a bigger loser in life or this movie, as we've long heard how all of Michael's issues can be traced to his dad. Colman Domingo's performance as this monster definitely tracks, but the actor's perceptive in how he plays him, depicting a man for which nothing is good enough, pushing his kids as far as he wants while lining his own pockets in the process. And in finding hurtful ways to phrase even the most fleeting  compliments, Domingo still manages to give Joseph small doses of humanity, until you realize it's just another con job to get what he wants out of his boys. 

That the Jackson kids never refer to their father as "Joseph" is telling, highlighting not only the distance between them, but the fact he's their manager first, especially when it comes to Michael. So talented on stage that his brothers may as well be invisible, the ten-year-old's potential places him under enormous pressure and first in line for Joseph's vicious belt beatings. 

In vaguely expressing her disapproval while occasionally offering up a delicately worded objection to Joseph's behavior, it's clear wife Katherine fears him. Long's role is easily the film's most thinly written, as we're expected to believe Joseph's reign of terror somehow skipped over the woman he married. For young Michael, escape comes in the form of Peter Pan, a story that reverberates through his adult life when he attempts to manufacture a childhood that was robbed from him. 

Juliano Valdi's heartbreakingly impressionable turn as young Michael and the Jackson 5's formation is probably the least explored, but most pivotal aspect to his biography. It's also a credit to John Logan's script that this period doesn't differ dramatically from the adult section, much like Michael himself. Similar to his fictitious hero, he never grows up and can't, torn between the dread of standing up to Joseph and forging a career on his own terms with the help of super attorney John Branca. There's also an appearance from Mike Myers as CBS Records president Walter Yetnikoff that just might be his least distracting cameo yet.   

Despite the two sharing only a handful of scenes, Michael's bond with his bodyguard Bill represents the rare instance where the singer seems able to forge a real connection with another human being. But like most of Michael's interactions, even this carries a sad transactional quality that could only come from being a star of such stature. His only true friends are the giraffes, snakes and dogs that will roam "Neverland Ranch" along with Bubbles the chimp, who's depicted with CGI laughable enough to temporarily take us out of the plot. 

The second and third acts revolve completely around Michael's music, with Fuqua essentially transforming this into an extended concert film that recreates the singers' most iconic performances and videos. And did he ever make the right decision by casting Michael's own nephew, Jaafar Jackson, who's marvel in the role. Not only does he nail the voice, changing looks and isolation of a scared little boy trapped inside an adult's body, but shows us Michael's brilliance as a performer and choreographer. Whether it's "Beat It," "Billie Jean," "Thriller" or "Bad," even the most skeptical fans are in for a treat watching him capture the King of Pop's moves and mannerisms, all while capably filling the sadder, quieter moments in between. 

The Pepsi commercial disaster is rightly marked as a huge pivot point, officially signaling the last gasp for the Jackson 5 as a unit and Joseph as a promoter too sleazy for even Don King (Deon Cole) to trust. More concerned with exploiting Michael than admitting his own role in the accident that nearly took the life of his now burned and disfigured son, this event only feeds into the star's obsession with altering his appearance. What starts as a rhinoplasty and treatment for vitiligo will spiral into multiple plastic surgeries, but the film stops just short of that. Instead, the focus remains on his stage shows and superstardom, with Fuqua depicting the hysteria of fainting concertgoers being carried out by security.  

If Michael's easily the most eccentric, complicated and strangely inaccessible artist to have such a massive reach, this presents a strong case for why. In scenes when he's visiting hospitalized sick children and relating better to them than any adult his own age, an innocence and kindness shines through, perhaps hinting at what could have been. Of course, it's also impossible to watch this without the looming specter of those eventual allegations crossing our minds, creating an uncomfortable dichotomy.  

Since the first hint of those still legally unproven claims don't surface until 1993, Fuqua gives us a Michael most would prefer to remember, with the caveat that anything resembling a normal, well adjusted life was sacrificed for the music. In a sense, Joseph was right about Michael eventually wanting to surround himself with enablers and "yes" men, possibly in an effort to retain the independence he was cruelly deprived of as a child. It's this that eventually leads to his undoing.  

Michael's a true rarity in possessing near universal appeal, a fact this movie solidly hits on, justifying what some have labeled a "paint by numbers" treatment of the legendary entertainer. But given the scope of his music, this traditionally straightforward approach feels right, especially since the essence of Michael's likability depended on a desire to reach as many people from different backgrounds as possible. So whether his idealistic goal to unite the world can be traced to arrested development or an abusive childhood, he believed it. And as a result, so did his fans.                                                           

The Guilty

Director: Antoine Fuqua
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Riley Keough, Peter Sarsgaard, Eli Goree, Ethan Hawke, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Christiana Montoya, Paul Dano, Gillian Zinser
Running Time: 90 min.
Rating: R

★★★ (out of ★★★★) 

It's understandable that some just won't be onboard for Antoine Fuqua's single location crime thriller The Guilty, citing its superficial similarities to 2013's The Call, starring Halle Berry. There's also a general belief that movies advertised as "thrillers" should take place in various locales, with breakneck action scenes involving multiple actors playing characters engaged in direct conflict with each other. It hasn't helped that recent circumstances have given us less of that than we've ever imagined, causing the novelty of these stripped down efforts to wear off considerably. But despite a title that makes it sound more like a Grisham adaptation, the thrills Fuqua provides are slightly more cerebral in nature and are kind of a departure for a filmmaker known for bombastic efforts like Training Day, Olympus Has Fallen and The Equalizer. Nothing he does feels small, but this arguably comes closest, clocking in at a tight hour and a half that's best described as a claustrophobic morality play centering around a polarizing, even intensely dislikable protagonist. 

Playing a man unexpectedly forced to come to terms with his failings, Jake Gyllenhaal's performance finds the actor again in Nightcrawler mode, nearly dripping in emotional and physical desperation for the film's entire duration. He's somewhat of a monster, easily triggered and prone to fits of explosive rage while giving us glimpses of someone with an urgent need to help that isn't coming from the healthiest place. But that matters less upon realizing a personality this damaged may actually be a better fit for this emergency than most. Never held accountable or called out on anything, it's his day of reckoning, with Gyllenhaal suspensely holding this character's feet to the fire right through to its twist-laden finale. 

Embattled LAPD officer Joe Baylor (Gyllenhaal) is working the night shift as a dispatcher at the 911 call center following an unspecified incident for which he's awaiting a hearing the following day. Already on his last nerve due to that and problems with his ex-wife Jess (Gillian Zinser) over their daughter, Joe receives call from a woman named Emily (Riley Keough), who reveals she's been abducted by a man in a white van. Without a plate number to go on and fires blazing in the L.A. area making visibility difficult, Joe's forced to grasp at any lead he can, including Emily's ex-husband and prime suspect Henry (Peter Sarsgaard) and their scared six-year old daughter, Abby (Christiana Montoya) While able to contact all of them, the situation proves much more complicated than expected, as the asthmatic, exhausted Joe unravels under the weight of his impending hearing and former partner Rick's (Eli Goree) testimony. Calling upon all his experience and the clock rapidly ticking down, Joe must find a way to save Emily's life, while still fixing his own.

Depending upon perspective, Joe is either the worst person to be on duty at a 911 call center this night or the best. Whether it be supervisors, co-workers or even the callers themselves, he lashes out at or berates anyone with whom he encounters. To say he easily loses his patience would seem to imply he has any to start, as the unknown incident for which he could be facing criminal charges has him at the end of his rope, irritable as ever. But the no-nonsense approach he brings as an officer can't be discounted, even as he frequently oversteps his bounds by bullying everyone involved into doing what he wants so this woman can be found. Sometimes it works, with fellow officers and dispatchers caving to his demands, but in many other instances it doesn't, checked and reminded at every turn he isn't exactly in a power position given his own potential legal problems. 

There are many points where Gyllenhaal makes you respect the fact that Joe's highly aggressive tactics and experience are needed to get this done, since without that, it's entirely impossible the call would be in the hands of someone lesser qualified or not nearly as invested in following through. This is the rollercoaster the actor takes us on, as Joe's outbursts of anger are interspersed with quieter moments of consolation he offers Emily that can only come from both being parents. It's through this, and the crime crime Joe's been accussed of, that we can finally view his behavior in full context, grasping his obsessive determination to rescue this woman. 

Fuqua keeps us entrenched enough in the plot to distract from the fact all the action takes place entirely in the call center, even as it's Gyllenhaal taking us through all the painful modulations of this officer's night from hell. There are some familar names providing the disembodied voices at the other end of the phone, but you'd be hard-pressed to recognize any without looking at the credits, which was a smart casting move that keeps focus only on the story. Of them, Riley Keough probably has the heaviest lifting to do as Emily, caught in a perpetual state of fear and distress that only worsens with each call and subsequent development.  The plot's stretched a little thin in the last act as it boils to a point where you really expect things could bleed over into the "real world." But other than brief flashbacks and hazy glimpses of vans and headlights, it doesn't really go there and whether it should have will likely provide debate fodder for afterwards. 

Since the whole movie is essentially an escalating series of phone calls, it's possible a surprise excursion out of this call center could have given the already suspenseful finish an extra jolt. Of course, that could just as easily misfire so it's tough to blame Fuquaua and screenwriter Nic Pizzolatto for so closely adhering to the 2018 Danish film on which it's based. Both for better and worse The Guilty surprises, starting as one story before evolving into something slightly different and more ambitious, the hints of such were being dropped the entire time. But Gylennhaal turns that occasionally frustrating journey into a deeper character study, providing glimpses into this man's damaged psyche, transcending whatever creative limitations may have existed on the page.     

Olympus Has Fallen

Director: Antoine Fuqua
Starring: Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett, Rick Yune, Dylan McDermott, Finley Jacobsen, Melissa Leo, Radha Mitchell, Robert Forster, Cole Hauser, Ashley Judd 
Running Time: 120 min.
Rating: R

★★★ (out of ★★★★)

You know a movie means business when they kill off the First Lady off within the first ten minutes. That this isn't even a spoiler, but merely the inciting event kicking off the White House terrorist takeover thriller, Olympus Has Fallen, should give you an idea the kind of action spectacle we're dealing with. It's greatest attribute is that it doesn't even give audiences time to question whether this or that can happen (hint: it probably can't) or figure out logistics. North Korean terrorists descend upon Washington D.C., staging an all out assault on The White House, muscling their way through by killing as many innocent bystanders, secret service, military and law enforcement as possible. And in this PG-13 movie era where it seems everything on screen is sanitized within an inch of its life, it comes as a great relief that director Antoine Fuqua doesn't pull any punches. He doesn't give in to political correctness, showing no hesitation in depicting the "bad guys" as angry terrorists who want to blackmail and destroy us. To his credit, he knows exactly the kind of movie he wants to make and that there's justifiably very little room for subtly or nuance in it. It's fun and ridiculous in ways only the most enjoyable action movies are. 

The pawn in the North Koreans' game is President Benjamin Asher, who's played by Aaron Eckhart exactly how you'd expect the actor to play a stubborn, but heroic, tough as nails Commander in Chief. Over a year removed, he's still reeling from the tragic results of a car accident at Camp David, when his good friend and lead secret service agent Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) saved his life while failing to prevent the death of the First Lady (Ashley Judd). After being removed from the President's security detail, Mike's now working at the Treasury Department and one the film's best dialogue exchanges comes when Director of the Secret Service Lynn Jacobs (Angela Bassett) tells him that Asher knows he did the right thing but was removed because he can't stand looking at him and being reminded of that night. A good line from a fairly clever script, effectively setting the stage for much of what follows, even if you could argue what's been seen so far is interesting enough for another story in itself.

All hell breaks loose when the North Koreans descend upon Pennsylvania Ave. by air and ground, eventually shooting their way into the White House where the President and Secretary of Defense McMillan (Melissa Leo) are being held hostage in a bunker by dangerous terrorist mastermind Kang Yeonsak (Rick Yune). It's up to Banning, seemingly the last agent alive, to rescue his former boss and make sure the First Son, Connor (Finley Jacobsen) is located. Their demands involve the removal of U.S. forces from Korea as well as a plot involving the detonation of our nuclear weapons, but that's almost beside the point. This can really best be described as "Die Hard in the White House" and your enjoyment of it is directly proportional to how exciting you find that premise, as it does mostly deliver on the tagline. It's hard not to when you have Butler taking a much needed breather from rom-com nonsense to slither through the walls of the Oval Office killing unsuspecting terrorists.

It's ironically the smaller character moments provided by an impressive supporting cast that end up carrying this. Like a frighteningly believable and bloodied Melissa Leo refusing to reveal the nuclear code or reciting the pledge of allegiance as she's dragged across the floor. Morgan Freeman's known for playing calm, benevolent leaders so it's kind of unusual to see him, as Speaker of the House Allan Trumball, suddenly thrust into the Presidency without any preparation and having to think on his feet. He and Army Chief of Staff Clegg (played by the great Robert Forster) are Banning's only lifeline to the outside world, even if at times it seems Clegg is working against him.

There's this scene where Clegg makes this horrible decision that kills his own men, but look at Forster's face. He's like a kid playing a video game. Not only does he think this plan is actually working, if he loses some of his men in the process, so be it. The idea of "giving in" to these terrorists' demands and withdrawing the troops is literally his worst nightmare. There's a small attempt to convey Banning's life outside work but that Radha Mitchell's role as his wife insignificant in terms of characterization isn't much of a detriment considering that's not where our concern lies. Dylan McDermott is sleazy and menacing as disgruntled ex-Secret Service agent Dave Forbes, who's defected to the other side to help Kang carry out his plan and is headed for a showdown with his former colleague.

As ridiculous as the movie may seem, it works within the context of its own silliness, never violating the ground rules it sets for itself. The opening thirty to forty minutes aren't silly though. They're actually pretty scary. After that, well, not so much. But it's still a great time. Whether Eckhart is believable as the President of the United States is almost beside the point here. Similar to Harrison Ford in Air Force One, he's believable as Aaron Eckhart playing the President in a treacherous situation, which is exactly all that should be asked of this. There's a London-based sequel on the way, but the filmmakers might be underestimating just how much the setting has to do with its success as it's tough to beat the sight of being able to just walk through the front door of a decimated White
House. As the better titled of the two recent White House attack movies, Olympus Has Fallen definitely won't inspire deep discussions about national security when it's over, but under its own terms, it's surprisingly smart and exciting.