The Three Michaels review: trio of Michael Jackson impersonators reaching for the stars | Movie

bBritish filmmaker Tom Goudsmit has chosen a quintessentially American subject for his first feature-length documentary: people seeking to improve their lot by posing as celebrities, or simply pretending to be them. In this case, the three subjects are young black men from the interior of central California who are posing as the deceased michael jackson from different periods in the pop star’s life. The high-voiced Chavail dresses like MJ from the era of his early ’80s Bad album; Quintin, the biggest Jackson fan of the three, dresses as his Thriller-era hero, and Malachi, who really wants to be a singer in his own right, covers for Dangerous-era Jackson.

Working as a team, they travel to San Francisco and then Los Angeles to busk or hang around nightclubs, hoping to earn tips. It’s a difficult way to earn a meager income, and it appears that the three of them sleep in a car overnight when they arrive in Los Angeles. In addition to doing their choreographed dance on the streets of Hollywood near Jackson’s Walk of Fame star, they’re looking for an agent (any kind of agent) to help them take the act to the next level. But when they finally meet a woman who specializes in acts of impersonation, none of the three are thrilled with the hard truths she has to tell them about what it takes to get ahead. If you look very closely you can see hope escaping from their bodies for a moment, like steam from a cold cup of tea.

The film never explains exactly when it was shot, but mini-montages of the media reaction to the documentary Leaving Neverland, in which two men say they are survivors of sexual abuse inflicted by Jackson, suggest this was made sometime around 2019. It is clear that the three subjects are not very interested in learning about the dark side of their hero, they all agree, presumably at Goudsmit’s urging, to watch the documentary which clearly shakes, albeit briefly in the case of one man, their faith. This collision between fantasy and reality is possibly the most interesting part of the film as you can both sympathize with the trio’s commitment to their different dreams but still recognize their stubborn refusal to abandon their devotion, despite mounting evidence. .

Adhering to a stand-back-and-watch approach, Goudsmit lets the comedy of the situation come naturally to the surface; In one scene, for example, Chavail, bless his cotton socks, explains how he is considering careers as “preacher, foot therapist, porn star, actor, salesman of some kind, host, or nude model” in case the impersonation of Michael Jackson doesn’t work. . This being 21st century California, it’s that third option that seems most likely at the end of the film.