Eventually, his songs started to grow on me and all I listened to was him. I streamed his music all day through. I knew I had to see him (well, a reincarnation of him through his nephew) on screen. I understood what profound influence his charm had on the whole world.

I’m going to focus more on his childhood here. Well, we can’t call it a childhood, but the timeline when he was just a kid. He was dragged onto the stage at a very young age, made to act like a grown-up and practice day and night, not even allowed to have fun and make friends his age. Joseph treated Mike was terribly, often beating him up with a belt. He was also the one who got his family out of the shithole they were living in, saw that glint of light in his children- of making it huge in the industry. He worked his ass off and made opportunities knock on their door.

Joseph acted as a catalyst in Michael’s journey. His behavior cannot be justified but would we know Michael today if not for his father? Would Michael have been at the pinnacle of success if not for his father?
Sure, Michael was a gifted kid, but he would have taken much more time from living poor in Gary to doing that iconic moonwalk on stage.

Maybe that’s the real butterfly effect of Michael Jackson’s life. A father desperate to pull his family out of poverty pushed his children harder than any child should ever be pushed. One decision led to another, endless rehearsals, brutal discipline, talent shows, record deals, screaming crowds, global fame. A small boy from Gary ended up becoming the most recognizable face on Earth.

But butterfly effects are rarely ever, one-dimensional. The same force that created greatness also created damage.

Michael gained the world, yet seemed to spend his entire life searching for bits of himself that fame had taken away too early. His success echoed across generations, inspired millions of artists and changed music forever, but somewhere in that same journey, a child was exploited of his own childhood.

That is something that stayed with me even after the movie ended. The chain reaction of all the transpired to create a man who altered global culture forever.

Long story short, I absolutely loved the movie. It gave every character the ending they deserved. Emily is seen vulnerable at the end- accepting her mistakes and finally becoming friends with Andy- someone she wanted to be friends with for so long, Nigel finally got the recognition he should’ve gotten years ago, Miranda finally allowed herself a moment of vulnerability and respect toward Andy instead of treating her as disposable. Even that tiny smile and nod at the end felt huge for her character.

Honestly, even Andy herself got the best ending. She walked away before becoming someone she didn’t recognize anymore, but she still carried everything she learned with her. That’s rare in movies- usually characters either fully reject the world or fully surrender to it. Andy did neither.
Now let’s talk about a debatable character- Miranda Priestly. Man, I hated how conceited and egoistic she seems- always so full of herself and her career. Never ever she lost a chance to belittle someone. She made people hate her. I remember wondering that if I’d been in Andy’s shoes, I’d snap faster than a dry stick. Something that Miranda said stuck with me though. Towards the end scene, she said to Andy that she knows she’s so hard to be around, so haughty, so snobbish. She knew that the career she chose came with a cost. The cost of not being able to be present for her twins, not be a family woman every woman is default-ly expected to be. The success came with people printing headlines like “Miranda Priestly: getting divorced for the sin of being a workoholic”. It made me ponder on a topic I don’t see many people talking about. Would such a headline be printed if it was a successful man? Certainly not. Why are women shamed for choosing something they love? Most people would just say that it’s not that deep. But it is.

IT IS THAT DEEP when the misogyny is so normalised that we don’t even think of it as a big deal.
This movie healed something in me as a woman navigating in the tech industry. I love pursuing what I do and I will do it till the day I die. It fills me with so much inspiration when I see women being the absolute icons they are.