It’s a movie starring his nephew in the lead role, approved by his estate, and by all accounts it just feels like an attempt to whitewash him. This is a man who was accused of being a serial child molester, settled with a family out of court for $25 million just to avoid a trial (Chandler), and openly admitted he slept in the same bed as kids while he was an adult (Bashir interview), among other things. I don’t really see what there is to debate.
Anything pointing this out gets backlash on movie-related subreddits, which I find wild. It makes me wonder, if Epstein could sing and dance, would he have gotten a biopic too? Would people be defending him like this?
Not too woke. Though I wouldn’t say it’s anything about being “woke” at all - the documentary is a shameless cash grab playing on controversy and ruined lives.
At the time this all went down, MJ was under a lot of scrutiny before he died. It’s clear that his family fucked him up hard and that stardom like he had broke his brain in a way where I don’t think he could be considered to be fully, rationally in control of his actions for most of his adult life. Which is not to excuse what he did, but I would blame Joe Jackson, the lack of mental health professionals in MJ’s life, and the lack of willingness to bring a celebrity to justice and realize he needs to be fully committed before I ever thought that MJ was just some average Epstein-style pedo.
I agree - what is there to debate? He was an adult sleeping with and molesting kids, and he needed legally mandated mental health treatment at the very least.