Director Spike Lee sat down with CNN, and he’s defending “Michael,” slamming critics and even sharing that he’s seen the movie “twice” and “loved it.”
CNN asked him, “Why so much criticism?” Lee passionately replied:
“Because, first of all, if you’re a movie critic and you’re complaining about this stuff—all this other stuff—but the movie ends in ’88, you’re talking about accusations that happened later. So you’re critiquing the film based on something you want included, but it doesn’t fit within the film’s timeline. But people showed up worldwide—people showed their love for Michael.”
“I miss Mike, I miss Prince. I mean, these are my brothers. Because I worked with both of them. Beautiful, beautiful people.”
Of course, Lee has a good point. Critics who keep accusing “Michael” of glossing over the allegations miss the point. “Michael” stops in 1988, and the allegations didn’t surface until 1993.
There’s been a lot of focus on the audience-critic divide when it comes to this film. “Michael” has a critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes of 37%, while audiences gave it an impressive rating of 97% on RT, an A- on CinemaScore, and an 88% “definite recommend” on PostTrak.
Hate to say it, as someone who fully supports the role of film criticism—good and bad—but the harsh critical bashing of “Michael,” which has been incredibly disproportionate to the point of parody, seems driven by preconceived ideas about what a Michael Jackson film should be, rather than being judged purely for what it set out to do.
It should be noted that Lee and Jackson collaborated most notably on the 1996 music video for “They Don’t Care About Us,” which Lee directed. Lee later remained involved in preserving Jackson’s legacy, directing the documentaries “Bad 25” (2012) and “Michael Jackson’s Journey from Motown to Off the Wall” (2016).