LOS ANGELES, April 21 (UPI) -- Michael, in theaters Friday, is far from the first musician biopic to use familiar shortcuts and cliches to chronicle an artist's life and career. However, those cliches have gotten a lot funnier to notice since Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story parodied them in 2007.
The film speeds through the Jackson family from their Gary, Ind., origins in 1966 through the '80s. Joseph Jackson (Colman Domingo) turns his sons into The Jackson 5, with young Michael (Juliano Valdi) as the lead singer.
By 1978, Jaafar Jackson plays Michael as he embarks on a solo career, but needs the executives at Epic Records to tell his father for him. Montages depict his rise as one mail truck of fan letters grows to four, and record label executives toast his platinum albums.
Early scenes show Michael Jackson accumulating more and more exotic pets, from a rat to a llama, giraffe and Bubbles the chimpanzee. He says they're not just pets, they're his friends.
Young Michael also reads Peter Pan by flashlight and sees Captain Hook as Joseph. He calls his fans part of his family too, so it is clear he is desperate for a real connection that his childhood in show business never afforded him.
