commentary

"Michael" and the Potterverse are booming. Apparently, we're done feeling bad about what that means

Published May 14, 2026 12:00PM (EDT)

Jaafar Jackson as Michael Jackson in "Michael" (Glen Wilson/Lionsgate)

Recently, one of my best friends asked me if I’d seen “Michael,” Antoine Fuqua’s Michael Jackson biopic that Salon’s movie critic Coleman Spilde hailed as “so damn weird.” This person knows me better than nearly everyone else on the planet, so I quickly figured out that she didn’t really care whether I’d seen “Michael” or, if I had, what I thought about it. What she was looking for, without explicitly saying so, was a kind of permission I’m in no position to offer, nor would I want to be.…