In 2004, Janet Jackson—an artist renowned for her socially-engaged and sexually liberating music—would perform at the MTV halftime show for the Super Bowl in Houston, Texas.

Jackson sang the women’s refrain: Talk to me boy.

Justin sang his last line—I’m gonna have you naked by the end of this song—and pulled Janet’s blouse, exposing her breast to over 140 million viewers.

The beginning of the documentary focuses on Jackson’s career ascent, then spends most of its sixty-nine-minute run on the halftime incident itself.

The event shot Timberlake higher in his solo career while Jackson was made to shoulder all of the blame, and watched her career plummet.

Her father, Joe Jackson, controlled her debut music career.

Whereas Janet’s siblings were outspoken about their father’s controlling and violent nature, Janet insisted her father had never been rough with her.

In 2004, Janet had already been out of the spotlight for a few years.

As the halftime performance approached, networks fretted over how the acts—P.

To satisfy CBS’s demands for family-friendly entertainment, MTV invited Justin Timberlake to join the halftime performance.

According to a halftime producer, Janet’s wardrobe stylist went shopping for her sunbelt nipple shields.

A former halftime producer claimed that Jackson, Timberlake, and the stylist met up in Jackson’s dressing room to choreograph their own plan, one in which Timberlake would rip Janet’s blouse and reveal a lace red bra.

In her interview with the Times, a former halftime producer says that Timberlake “manned up” by sticking around and apologizing, and that Jackson “betrayed” her and “plotted” the malfunction behind the network’s back.

The New York Times even critiqued the aesthetic of Janet’s breast, calling it a “normal middle-aged woman’s breast” in a 2004 article.

A talk show host calls Janet, who was 37 at the time, “almost geriatric.” The Damita Jo album tanked.

Though he once appeared to idolize Janet (while in NSYNC, he opened for her Velvet Rope tour; and the documentary plays a clip of him kissing a Jackson poster) he abandoned her after the incident, riding the coattails of the prevailing sexist and racist perceptions of Janet to distance himself from the situation.

When the Grammy’s neared, Moonves wanted Timberlake and Jackson to publicly apologize at the event.

Justin Timberlake kept his McDonald’s sponsorship.

Also infuriating: the knowledge that, in 2018, Timberlake was invited back to the Super Bowl, where he sang “Rock Your Body” at his halftime performance?

After Framing Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake released a statement on his Instagram, trying to atone for profiting off systemic misogyny and racism, and specifically addressing Britney and Janet, women he claimed to care for and respect

His message to Janet feels especially performative, a preemptive attempt to clear his name, while for so long he was complicit—so many of us were—in slandering Janet’s