‘STILL: A Michael J. Fox Movie’ Review: An Honest Look at Life and Success At Its Highest and Lowest Moments
It may not sound true right now, but at one point over three decades ago, Michael J. Fox was the biggest movie star in the world; or at least came as close to that status as you can. But we know this is the case because, even though the actor has been out of the main picture of Hollywood for a long time (even if he still earned multiple Emmy nominations for guest-starring in The Good Wife), his name is recognized all over the globe mainly for a movie that is close to 40 years old. He now lives a more reserved life, surrounded by his loving family and taking on a TV role here and then, but the bulk of his days is spent trying for his condition not to take the best of him — as he revealed in 1998, he suffers from Parkinson’s disease. Now, he decided it was time for him to tell his story; this is STILL: A Michael J. Fox Movie.
The film, directed by Davis Guggenheim and based on the books by Fox himself, is currently available to stream on Apple TV Plus. It isn’t a cry for help to increase funds on the research of Parkinson’s disease (which Fox is very invested in, having started a foundation in 2000 and fighting for years to raise awareness about it); it isn’t an auto-biographical portrait of what it means to have nothing and to have everything in Hollywood, and changing from one to the other in the blink of an eye (which Fox knows a thing or two about, as described in the documentary). It’s all of that, and so much more, framed through the eyes of a man who is scared it could soon be too late for him.
Michael J. Fox in STILL: A Michael J. Fox Movie, now streaming on Apple TV+.
Throughout the runtime of the documentary, we hear a lot of narration by Fox, but none of it has any makeup on — we even get to see him answering questions while having people from the makeup department cover up a bruise on his face that he got after falling down, an event that he treats as if he had had cereal for breakfast, and which many others would have either tried to cover up beforehand, or perhaps even made the entire documentary about it. He’s been battling this disease, next to his wife, for more than 30 years, and little can surprise him anymore. His symptoms are very evident, and the disease is evidently winning over his sense of humor and optimism, and he’s not hiding it from the world by any means.
STILL: A Michael J. Fox Movie is a stripped down look at Fox’s entire life, from his reckless teenage years where he excelled for being the shortest one in class and later his ability to wreck his dad’s car, to his early days in Hollywood, where he literally had no money and was about to move back home when he finally landed the role in Family Ties that eventually led to Back to the Future. But Fox and Guggenheim are not interested in retelling a story of how a young actor jumped into stardom in Hollywood, or how a faceless producer who has been forgotten by history was humiliated for being especially adamant that Michael J. Fox wouldn’t join his show, just so he could later become the main star of that and even win three Emmys for it. Back to the Future also takes up some screentime, but it’s almost forgotten in the mix of everything that happened in his life, which might be ironic as that is what set him into the Hollywood stratosphere.
Davis Guggenheim in STILL: A Michael J. Fox Movie, now streaming on Apple TV+.
Those were the days for him, where real money was knocking down the door, and booze and drugs were flowing in, rent-free. Looking back, though, it’s unclear if he would choose to live a day in his 20s again, symptom-free but being unable to see his wife and kids. STILL: A Michael J. Fox Movie also serves as a warning sign to the younger generations who think they can take over the world; it’s not a reminder that everyone will get older, but rather a cautionary tale of how being young doesn’t mean you can be senseless about life and the body you were given. It’s not confirmed that the life Fox took on in his mid-to-late 20s, where he bounced from party to film set to party to TV set, and then all over (finding 20 minutes to sleep in between), was what eventually triggered Parkinson’s disease, but it definitely didn’t help prevent it. He couldn’t stand still back then, and now, he’s forever cursed not to stay still again.
STILL: A Michael J. Fox is currently streaming on Apple TV Plus. At 90 minutes, it is the perfect watch if you are looking for something different this weekend. Highly recommend.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as authors like Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
