Michael a fan-pleasing biopic that sugarcoats, Taron Egerton is the reason to watch Apex

Michael (PG)

127 minutes, now showing
★★☆☆☆

The story: This biopic of the late American superstar Michael Jackson (portrayed by his nephew Jaafar Jackson) covers his boyhood – when he was a member of the Jackson Five with his brothers – and other key moments of his life.

It is hard to overestimate the chokehold Michael Jackson had on pop culture during the 1980s and 1990s. When he was not breaking records for creating the best-selling album of all time (Thriller, 1982) or breaking stadium tour attendance records (Bad, 1987; Dangerous, 1991), his non-musical life hogged headlines. But over the 1990s and 2000s, he was shadowed by controversies that included allegations of child sexual abuse and an addiction to painkillers.

Michael demands that viewers forget what they know of the less savoury details of his life to focus on his triumphs. It is a fair call; a biopic – especially one made with the direct supervision of the subject’s family – is not obliged to become a celebrity roast.

This is a feel-good movie made for fans, but by sticking only to the early, squeaky-clean years, it infantilises viewers, considering them unable to process Jackson’s troubling behaviours without an intrusive amount of handholding. A thick, goopy layer of pop-psychology excuse-making is laid on whenever anything remotely troubling appears on screen.

This strongly defensive posture backfires when it tries to explain his fascination with kids. The biopic blames trauma inflicted by his violent, domineering father Joseph, played with unnerving calm by the always-watchable Colman Domingo.

Being around children is healing to him; it helps him be the child he was never allowed to be, according to the on-the-nose dialogue.

As explanations go, it is insultingly specious – many functional, law-abiding adults are the products of abusive parents. Making the tone-deaf approach worse are the scenes of Jackson comforting sick children. Instead of being wholesome, it feels like creepy foreshadowing.

As has been noted everywhere, Jaafar Jackson’s performance is the soul of the film. Whether the rookie actor is re-enacting Jackson’s reveal of the moonwalk dance step in 1983 or recreating the filming of the Thriller music video in 1983, the electricity crackles.

Without his charm and stunning dance skills, this would have been a series of expensively shot lip-sync videos, strung together by a story that feels like a two-hour commercial assuring viewers that loving MJ does not make you a bad person.

Hot take: Watching the King of Pop at his dazzling peak delivers an undeniable sugar rush, but the film’s insistence on explaining away his darkness leaves a sour aftertaste.

Apex (M18)

95 minutes, streaming on Netflix
★★★☆☆

The story: Adventurer Sasha (Charlize Theron) is recovering from the traumatic loss of her husband and climbing partner Tommy (Eric Bana), and travels to his homeland of Australia to recover. She attempts river kayaking at a national park notorious for the disappearances of visitors. Among several shady characters there, she meets Ben (Taron Egerton), who appears to be a friendly local, generous with advice about routes and scenic spots. However, she discovers he is not who he appears to be.

Icelandic director Baltasar Kormakur works with a trope-filled plot that smashes together bits from other films, including his own Everest (2015) for the early climbing sequence, followed by bits from the free-climbing documentary Free Solo (2018) in the finale.

In between, there is a try at raising the stakes. The story goes from a chase and survival thriller as Ben hunts Sasha like prey, to something approaching body horror after Sasha discovers the truth behind Ben’s hunts.

Like so many other Netflix projects, this is a movie made for distracted viewing, from its dead simple chronological set-up – man dies, wife mourns by going kayaking alone in the middle of nowhere, meets maniac, chase ensues – to its tidy, by-the-numbers ending.

There is a closing shot of Sasha getting over her grief in the clean, pat way which happens when executives tell film-makers that they are banned from ending movies without telling audiences that the main character is fine now and they should stop worrying and continue subscribing.

For all that, it is a story that is told competently, with the appropriate amount of suspense, especially in the twisty chase scenes set in the fictional park’s forests and caves. The Australian wilderness gets credit for its primal majesty.

Welsh actor Egerton, attempting a thick rural Australian accent, is excellent as the boyishly charming yet self-pitying, crossbow-wielding maniac. He is genuinely convincing as the man who ensnares Sasha with his niceness, and also more than able to embody the tortured psyche of a spree killer.

Hot take: Egerton elevates a formulaic Netflix chase thriller that prioritises distracted-viewing comfort over genuine tension.