Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
I don’t mean to be irreverent, but celebrities have been dying with such frequency these past few years, I actually thought George Michael had been dead longer. The former Wham! singer and solo star passed away not even a year ago, dying from heart failure on Christmas morning, 2016 at the age of 53. In an odd way, however, this disconnect, between perception and reality, is at the heart of George Michael: Freedom, the new documentary he was working on at the time of his death and which premiered last week on Showtime.
We know he was working on it before his death because the film starts with model Kate Moss (who, by the way, is still really freaking hot), telling us, “This is his final work.” Then after an overly long intro we see who we think may be George Michael sitting behind a typewriter, as another voice gives us yet another introduction, “In 1988, George Michael became the biggest selling artist in the world. This is the story of just how fame and tragedy intervened to change his life … forever.”
The world was first introduced to George Michael when he was the singer in early ’80s English pop duo Wham! England in the early ’80s was a troubled place, but rather than wallow in grim realist brutality, Wham!’s music was all upbeat melodies and optimism. At their best they evoked the irresistible enthusiasm of ’60s Motown, but dressed it up in the Day-Glo and pastel hues of the era, a look Michael describes as “ridiculous shorts and curtain rings in my ears.” Despite their popularity growing with every record, however, Michael was unhappy and yearned to strike out on his own.
Having learned how to make music that jumped out of the radio, the early solo hits came easy. But still Michael was unhappy. His solo debut, 1987’s Faith, was a colossal hit on both sides of the Atlantic, but the demands of stardom and a punishing tour schedule took their toll. “Music was my very controlling lover,” his disembodied voice tells us, and says at the end of Faith World Tour he wondered if he would ever perform again.
The documentary then takes an awkward turn, where Michael talks about his success on the American R&B charts, traditionally the terrain of black artists. According to the documentary, this created a backlash, especially after he won the American Music Award for Favorite Soul/R&B Album in 1989. But…I mean, it should have caused a backlash. Hell, Faith wasn’t even a soul or R&B album. In order to validate him, the documentary then trots out a chorus line of African-American artists, all declaring how soulful he is. It’s incredibly awkward and pandering and honestly, I don’t even remember it being a controversy at the time.
Smarting from these events, Michael took a year off, before going back to the studio and creating the album Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1, which was released in September 1990. Though the album contained the massive worldwide hit “Freedom! ’90,” and was well received by critics, U.S. sales were a disappointment. According to Michael and the documentary, that was because his label dropped the ball because they thought it wasn’t commercial enough. According to the label it was because Michael refused to promote the album with a press tour or music videos, opting instead to fill his videos with one super model after another. To prove the daring brilliance of this move, the documentary interviews a phalanx of fashionistas testifying as such, but you’ll excuse me if I take their musical opinions with a grain of salt. Frank Sinatra thought Michael was being a prima donna at the time and, sorry George, but I tend to agree.
The only promotional work Michael was willing to do was play live, and a gig in Brazil ended up introducing him to the first great male love of his life, designer Anselmo Feleppa. He says the unconditional love he felt with Feleppa gave him the strength to take his label to court to get out of his recording contract, and to accept himself as a gay man. Unfortunately, Feleppa was living on borrowed time. He was diagnosed with AIDS six months into their relationship and died from a brain aneurism in 1993. Adding to his misery, Michael lost his lawsuit against Sony Music in 1994, saying “Ultimately, the whole thing was a complete waste of time and I regret it to this day.”
The documentary then stuffs in the next 20 years of Michael’s life in an almost equal amount of minutes. He releases more albums, all of which were apparently huge overseas, comes out of the closet, of course after getting arrested for soliciting sex in public in 1998, loses his mother, and then has another hit record overseas. The final act is one long celebrity circle jerk, with models, actors and the occasional musician talking about Michael’s greatness and lasting musical contribution.
Ultimately, I’m not really sure what the George Michael: Freedom documentary is about. It seems obvious the original idea was to focus on a certain period in Michael’s career, but additional plotlines were then added after his death. And while anytime an artist creates a documentary about themselves it’s bound to tell their story from their own vantage point, Michael’s interpretation of events bucks up against equally believable competing narratives. The end result is a documentary about Michael’s life which seems hurried and incomplete. It would have been interesting to see the final product had Michael been able to complete it himself, but sadly, he just didn’t have time.Benjamin H. Smith is a New York based writer, producer and musician. Follow him on Twitter:@BHSmithNYC.
