George Michael: Portrait of an Artist

Being the same vintage as George Michael, and knowing about the music that was the soundtrack to my young adulthood, I expected to like this trip down memory lane.

But it was very much more than that. It was a look at the backstory that explained everything about the arc of George's life and career, and the darkness you could always tell was around the edges.

I had forgotten how influential his coming out was. And I was unaware of his deliberate political provocations. I was also completely unaware of this philanthropic nature and the deliberateness of that as well.

I'm sorry that the demons won that battle for his existence--he's someone we could really count on right now in our current battles with the other demons that have been unleashed lately.

I am going to be thinking about this for a long time. It's not a story I'll be able to shake off. I'm glad I watched.

Poor documentary. It's rushed, it contains far too many talking heads giving biased information, and the production quality is poor. I think it's the 3rd chapter of the documentary, watch the titles appear on screen-they fade in and disappear quickly and then reappear quickly. How was this not seen in production?! Barely anything was mentioned about Princess Diana or music George wrote about his mother, no mention of his musical collaboration or friendship with Elton John, and absolutely nothing was mentioned about December Song.

George Michael is a musical legend and his story deserves a more thorough and respectable documentary to capture his talent. This documentary focused more on his downfall, caused by himself, and the ugly realities of his fall from grace. Too much was crammed in, and it felt more like a cheap VH1 or A&E TV documentary rather than something of a higher caliber.

Disappointing.

.... and not enough people who were actually knew personally George Michael -- where is his family, friends? Instead, you get plenty of Academic Talking Heads from some psyche dept. At some college or university or social-psych centre you've never heard of, who never met George, never talked with him, etc., but, oh, they knew exactly why he did, when he did it, etc.

The filmmakers did manage to find one person who personally worked with George in the control room, mixing and recording the songs, etc. Oh, wow, big whoop!

I am so tired of all these documentaries in the last 10 years (mostly end up on Streaming Services anyway) where people who didn't know the Subject personally just go on and on and on about why Artist did this or did that.

Actually, the best of all the recently released documentaries is the only I saw on Netflix, simply titled "Wham!" because it only deals with the Wham! Years - not George's post-Wham! Days.

In the Netflix docu, there are many interviews with people who actually knew and worked (and sang!) with George! Especially nice to see Andrew Ridgeley, showing us all those scrapbooks his mom made (and kept!) all through the "Wham!" years. It would be cool if some savvy publisher -- or even Andrew's family -- published a fascimile-sized book of all these scrapbooks. What a treat that would be!

Anyway, skip this one (please!) and that other British-TV docu that interviews neighbors et al right after George's death. ("So how did you know George?" "How did you react to his death?" and other inane questions. Lots of required camera shots of all the flowers stacked up by the home's front entance. Blah, blah, blah... Seen it all before, folks!

George Michael (and the seemingly left-behind Andrew Ridgeley) deserve better.

I'm am sorry, but how would a former manager know anything about George when he himself stated they had no deep conversations. All speculation on many of the troubles we knew about. Watch Freedom Uncut. Listen to his last interview. That was his words, his feelings, not speculation. As I said we know of his problems and there is no new insight here because they did not know him. As for the ex, that person lost all credibility for reasons.

Unfortunately I believe the same person that made this is now acting like an expert on another star we recently lost.

If the person making this truly respected George Michael, love his music, and keep speculation out, We know of his troubles, he had enough press harrassing him in life. He does not need it now.

I was a young guy when Wham took off, and the George Michaels solo career followed.

This documentary tells the George Michaels journey from would be pop star into a well respected and extremely talented solo performer.

George starts off his musical career as a teenager full of hopes of conquering the world of pop music. Along with his best friend Andrew Ridgeley, Wham is formed and they explode onto the scene. Slowly but surely the star quality of George starts to burn bright.

Over the years, George turns from a bright eyed enthusiastic pop star into a cynical performer, who seems to be at odds against himself as a reluctant celebrity under the scrutiny of the media. There are insights into his family life and partners.

The story telling is relevant and good in this documentary. They could have touched more on his relationship with Andrew Ridgeley, and also his death was never clearly discussed.

I liked the Wham documentary better, but this is still good, particularly if your a George Michael fan.