Bad 25

The documentary turns around a single album: Michael Jackson's Bad, released in 1987, and the tour that followed. It goes into the studio sessions, the video shoots and the full stadiums, with the real subject being what you do after Thriller. Spike Lee directed. It screened first on 31 August 2012 at the 69th Venice International Film Festival. The privilege here is access. Lee was let into the official Michael Jackson archives to a degree nobody had been before, using video, photographs and Jackson's own notes that had never been published. Footage of him working in the studio is the spine of the film. The list of people talking is wide and unexpected: Martin Scorsese, Stevie Wonder, Mariah Carey, Sheryl Crow, Questlove and Kanye West. Who it is for: anyone curious about how Jackson worked and about eighties pop production. Who it is not for: viewers wanting a critical view. It was made with the blessing of the family and the estate and never touches the contested subjects.