British film-maker Tom Goudsmit has chosen a quintessentially American subject for his first feature-length documentary: people seeking to better their lots by impersonating, or just pretending to be, celebrities. In this case, all three of the subjects are young black men from the hinterland of central California who impersonate the late Michael Jackson from different eras in the pop star’s life. High-voiced Chavail dresses as MJ from around the time of his early-80s album Bad; Quintin, the most diehard Jackson fan of the three, dresses as his hero in the Thriller era, and Malachi, who really wants to be a singer in his own right, covers Dangerous-era Jackson.
Working as a team, they travel to San Francisco and later Los Angeles to busk on the streets or wander around nightclubs, hoping to pick up tips. It’s a tough way to earn a meagre income, and it looks like the three of them sleep in a car overnight when they make it to LA. As well as doing their choreographed dance-and-patter shtick on the streets of Hollywood near Jackson’s Walk of Fame star, they seek out an agent – any kind of agent – to help them take the act to the next level. But when they finally meet a woman who specialises in impersonation acts none of the three are thrilled with the tough home truths she has to deliver about what it will take to get ahead. If you look very closely you can see the hope escaping from their bodies for a moment, like steam from a cooling cup of tea.
