Spike Lee‘s Bad 25 is fantastic. I saw it in Toronto and gave it one of my most positive reviews of the year. Centering on the creation of Michael Jackson‘s record-breaking 1987 album “Bad”, the doc speaks with those closest to Jackson during those years and finally pushes aside the attention whores most commonly interviewed when talking about the late singer.
Here’s a snippet from my review:
I was enthralled listening to Bruce Swedien discussing his work as Michael’s audio engineer. Lee talks with Quincy Jones, Joe Pytka (director of “Dirty Diana” and The Way You Make Me Feel”), Steve Stevens on being called in to play guitar on “Dirty Diana”, Ruben Blades on working with Michael to translate “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” into Spanish, Greg Phillinganes (synthesizer) and Matt Forger’s genuine sincerity discussing his work with Michael at his Hayvenhurst home. Then, of course, there are the entertainment names such as Justin Bieber, Kanye West, Sheryl Crow (who toured with Michael doing the “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” duet), Cee Lo Green, Chris Brown and Mariah Carey.
All of these conversations lead to the final moments when Lee asks each and every person where they were when Michael died and it’s as if the whole thing stops. The smiles they were sharing turn to tears. One of them says his response on hearing the news was, “Don’t call me and tell me that because it’s not true!” You feel it in your bones, the love that was shared between these creative artists that’s on display. It’s the first time I can remember seeing people genuinely speaking about Michael Jackson and actually believing them.
Bad 25 hits New York and Los Angeles theaters today for a one-week, Oscar-qualifying run (and if you can I suggest you see it now), but don’t fret if you don’t live in those cities, it will be airing on ABC on Thanksgiving Night for all to see and the first TV spot has arrived and is featured directly below.
You can read my full review here.
