Janet Jackson, review: pain, regret and ‘nipplegate’ but there’s no escaping Michael – The Telegraph

That is a potent dynamic for a story, one reflected in different ways throughout pop history, where talented young women are exploited by powerful men. Macdonald keeps that fuse burning throughout, depicting Janets career as a personal battleground in which she has had to assert herself time and time again in a world dominated by male figures. Aged 18, she sacked her father and broke away from the Jackson organisation. Discipline without love is tyranny, and tyrants they were not, she loyally says of her parents, but her lingering unease at the choices her late father (in particular) made for her permeate the film.

Famous female talking heads, including Mariah Carey, Whoopi Goldberg, Missy Elliot and Janelle Mone, keep popping up to proclaim Janets talent and influence, but the star herself comes across as ineffably sad, often tearful, and emotionally conflicted about her career.

I was innocent, It wasnt fair, Its still painful, she remarks in a soft, trembling voice as she considers controversies that have dogged her, or relationships that went sour. Three marriages have ended in divorce, and various close personal friends (mainly choreographers, hairdressers, stylists and her official biographer, David Ritz) tentatively suggest issues with controlling men, somewhat ironically given how much of Janets most successful music has been about self-empowerment, notably her breakout 1986 album Control.

The second episode unearths compelling footage of Janet arguing with famed R&B producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis in the studio, and there is a constant assertion of her creative autonomy, yet the story keeps landing back in places where Janet feels victimised, unappreciated and uncertain who is controlling the narrative. She confesses to being an emotional eater who has struggled with her weight and reveals that Michael used to call her a pig and cow, then quickly defends him. It was not malice on his part, but it hurts.

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Janet Jackson, review: pain, regret and 'nipplegate' but there's no escaping Michael - The Telegraph