Todd’s Movie Blog

To rip off a quote from What About Bob, there are two kinds of people in the world, those who like Michael Jackson and those who don’t.  I’m in the latter category and my wife is in the former.  So when we finally hit a weekend where we didn’t have to deal with a broken down car or running errands for a parent, I steeled myself and accompanied her to see This Is It.

Now as I said, I’m not a fan of Michael Jackson’s music.  During his heyday of the 80’s I listened to David Lee Roth era Van Halen and Robert Plant (nowadays I also listen to Elvis and Sinatra), so you will have some understanding of how important this next statement is. I really liked the movie.

Stripped away of all the scandal and odd public behavior, the film allows Jackson’s actual talent to show.  He sings, dances, choreographs, rearranges compositions on the fly and stage directs his concert.  The film shows how much untapped potential Jackson still had at fifty and instead being a has been from the 80’s going through the motions, really had been on the verge of a comeback to rival Tina Turner’s. The rehearsals show what the concert would have been, and it would have been awesome.

I also like the structure of the film.  Each song gets set up by showing the planning of the stage set or the filmed intro that would be shown on a projection behind the stage, then you get a brief snippet of Jackson and his dancers working out the moves and stage direction.  Finally comes an actual performance of the song.  The last part is the most amazing part as the film cuts from one rehearsal performance to another and in each one Jackson is so spot on that it plays seamlessly as one complete performance. Another nice thing about the film is that it gives an opportunity for the musicians and dancers to have their performances actually seen.

I will be very surprised if this doesn’t get nominated and win Best Documentary at the Oscars.