The details they share largely corroborate each other’s stories and are filled with believably minute and disturbing details. The pain is written all over the duo’s faces. And it’s impossible not to empathize with Robson and Safechuck as they speak their truth.
Despite ample evidence to the contrary in current events, human beings really are empathetic creatures. The reason why comes down to those damn eyes of ours and the brains they’re connected to. Still, despite that lack of a smoking gun, or perhaps even because of it, Leaving Neverland is more riveting than many true crime documentaries covering similar subjects. Though the film does procure some truly stomach-churning fax and answering machine messages from Jackson, none of them rise anywhere close to the level of a Robert Durst-ian bathroom confession. And that will mostly remain the case following Leaving Neverland’s debut. Prior to the premiere of Leaving Neverland, no meaningful, substantial hard evidence against Jackson had ever been uncovered. The documentary is simply Safechuck and Robson’s stories, nothing less, nothing more. Instead Leaving Neverland opts for a far more intimate approach. It isn’t the “full” story of the Michael Jackson assault allegations, nor does it claim to be. Kelly, Reed’s film isn’t an exhaustively researched piece of journalism. Kelly, Leaving Neverland is most certainly not that.
Despite its chronological alignment close to the “other” legendary performer/serial abuser of children documentary, A&E’s Surviving R. When approaching Leaving Neverland, it’s important to keep in mind first and foremost what it isn’t. Their accounts are credible and devastating. The two quickly became close friends (Safechuck’s mother says in the doc that she viewed Michael as another son).īoth Safechuck and Robson tell a common story about how their childhood friendship with Jackson evolved into a platonic love, then a twisted romantic obsession, followed by persistent sexual abuse under the guise of consensual experimentation. Safechuck has a disturbingly similar story of meeting Jackson as a young boy when filming a Pepsi commercial. Shortly thereafter Jackson would become a presence in the family’s life, eventually staying overnight at the Robsons’ new home in LA and at Jackson’s properties, including Neverland Ranch. Jackson was delighted by the five-year-old’s moves and invited him to a concert to dance onstage. And it’s excellent.īorn in Brisbane, Australia, Robson met Jackson in 1988 when he won a Michael Jackson dancing competition at the mall. All story, nothing but story, so help us, God. Their wardrobes and the lighting of the rooms in which they’re being interviewed don’t even acknowledge the passing of time.
In telling the story of two adult men’s tortuous history with Michael Jackson, all Leaving Neverland really has is those two men sitting in front of a camera, illustrating their pain as best they can. What makes Dan Reed’s Leaving Neverlan d so atypical for a documentary, and ultimately so devastating, is that it can’t defer to the viewers’ visual appetites. The best documentaries are able to put an image directly in front of those eyes of ours and as the light reaches rods and cones, they say “See! See! There’s the truth you were looking for.” Film is a visual medium and our eyes are starving.įeature-length documentaries, such as the four-hour Leaving Neverland, are often seen as the definitive version of the truth given that we fancy our eyes as the most compelling instrument for truth seeking.
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