Sundance Review: Spike Lee's 'Michael Jackson’s Journey From Motown To Off the Wall'

“Michael Jackson’s Journey From Motown to Off the Wall” is overflowing with phenomenal performance footage of the legendary musician from his early days with The Jackson 5 to his adult work on 1979’s Off the Wall. Spike Lee’s documentary on this formative period in Michael Jackson’s career derives its electric, enlivening energy from these fantastic clips. Alas, they’re not enough to alter the fact that this non-fiction effort – premiering at Sundance (and hitting Showtime next month), but primarily produced in conjunction with Jackson’s estate to be packaged with a new reissue of Off the Wall – is merely a nostalgic promotional puff piece meant to look back fondly, and uncritically, at an artist transitioning from a youth-oriented pop fad to the biggest star in the world.

Though Lee makes a brief on-screen appearance, recalling a failed attempt to woo a high school girl with tickets to the Broadway production of “The Wiz,” 'Journey From Motown to Off the Wall' could have...