Film: This Is It | reviews, news & interviews
Film: This Is It
Film: This Is It
The movie of the show that never was: Michael Jackson's affecting swansong
Wednesday, 28 October 2009
There are several reasons why you might be planning to avoid the Michael Jackson movie, This Is It. The hype about advance ticket sales has been deafening, enhancing the suspicion that the project was cooked up by Jackson’s concert promoters as a catchpenny exercise to recoup their £25m investment in the aborted series of shows at the O2. The star’s death the day after a dress rehearsal is hardly reassuring either. What sort of shape was he in while the film – apparently culled from 100 hours of rehearsals in LA earlier this year - was being shot? You can almost hear the doctored vocal performances and see the body-double dancers at work. This Was Not It, you might well be thinking.
There are several reasons why you might be planning to avoid the Michael Jackson movie, This Is It. The hype about advance ticket sales has been deafening, enhancing the suspicion that the project was cooked up by Jackson’s concert promoters as a catchpenny exercise to recoup their £25m investment in the aborted series of shows at the O2. The star’s death the day after a dress rehearsal is hardly reassuring either. What sort of shape was he in while the film – apparently culled from 100 hours of rehearsals in LA earlier this year - was being shot? You can almost hear the doctored vocal performances and see the body-double dancers at work. This Was Not It, you might well be thinking.
more
Love Lies Bleeding review – a pumped-up neo-noir
There's darkness on the edge of town in Rose Glass's sweaty, violent New Queer gem
Music Reissues Weekly: West Coast Consortium - All The Love In The World
Top-drawer British harmony pop band whose promise was unfulfilled
Remembering conductor Andrew Davis (1944-2024)
Fellow conductors, singers, instrumentalists and administrators recall a true Mensch
Brancusi, Pompidou Centre, Paris review - founding father of modernist sculpture
Uplifting quest for form and essence
CVC, Concorde 2, Brighton review - they have the songs and they have the presence
Welsh sextet bring their lively Seventies-flavoured pop frollicking to the south coast
Extract: Pariah Genius by Iain Sinclair
A form-defying writer explores the troubled mindscape of a Soho photographer
Hallé, Wong, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - meeting a musical communicator
Drama and emotional power from a new principal conductor
Nezouh review - seeking magic in a war
A movie that looks on the dreamier side of Syrian strife
Album: Dua Lipa - Radical Optimism
An admirable attempt to catch the magical groove that helped us through lockdown
Laughing Boy, Jermyn Street Theatre review - impassioned agitprop drama
Strong ensemble work highlights the plight of people with learning disabilities
Guildhall School Gold Medal 2024, Barbican review - quirky-wonderful programme ending in an award
Ginastera spolights the harp, Nino Rota the double bass in dazzling performances
Album: Sia - Reasonable Woman
An awesome singer-songwriter comes into her own
Add comment