Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie (2023)

Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie (aka Still) review by Mark McPherson - Cinema Paradiso

The mainstream public has a perception of Michael J. Fox as an actor. In the 1980s, everybody knew him as the young star of Family Ties and Back to the Future with rising talent. In the 1990s, he struggled through lukewarm movies and retreated more to television. By the late 1990s, he was open with his secretive diagnosis of Parkinson's disease, owning it and doing his part to support this condition with the formation of the Michael J. Fox Foundation. He’s since had various acting roles where he doesn’t shy away from his diagnosis, including a hilarious episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm where he plays off his Parkinson’s diagnosis as an excuse to get back at Larry David. But there’s more to Fox than that.

Still is a documentary that lets the actor lay out his complicated career and personal life in various aspects. With Fox telling the story himself, we get to know all the gritty details, beautifully told with archive footage and reenactments. One of the most compelling pieces is how Fox describes his non-stop schedule of trying to film Family Ties and Back to the Future simultaneously with very little time for sleep in between. We get to hear of how his success exploded, and his defeats sent him retreating into the bottle, even after having found his wife, Tracy Pollan, and having children with her.

The film darts between Fox talking about his life and showcasing his day-to-day life with his family. We get to see him go to the doctor and discuss his treatment with a doctor while his wife chimes in with details she notices. We watch the tender moments when he jokes around with his grown-up kids. We also get some raw moments between takes of the historical recollection that showcase a level of humanity and anxiety within Fox that is laid bare with harsh realization. The honest Michael J. Fox comes through in this film, and it’s a side that feels the most necessary in understanding the story behind such an actor.

For what could’ve been a slow and passive documentary on Michael’s life, it’s edited with great excitement. I especially loved the quick cuts between footage from Spin City and scenes of taking medication, showcasing how hard Fox was trying to conceal his diagnosis during this time. We also get his thoughts on this issue about what you’d expect. Of course, anybody who is 30 years old and gets a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease will immediately go into denial mode, spouting, “That’s an old person’s disease.” It’s a shock to the system that Fox tried to deal with in secret. As time went on, however, it was something he knew he couldn’t conceal. He came clean with his diagnosis and made the rounds of going on talk shows to be more open, highlighting how important it was for Fox beyond just providing explanations for his constant movements.

I was surprised at how much I loved Still. As far as autobiographical documentaries go, this one is full of life and showcases enough of Fox’s faults, tragedies, and victories to love him all the more. Few actors have such a warm aura as Fox, and it’s only grown when more of his honesty came about over the years. Much like the actor’s open admission of his disease, this documentary will hopefully make more people see him as an actor who is more than just the teen from Back to the Future, the fish-out-of-water from Doc Hollywood, the media strategist from Spin City, or the comical version he portrayed on Curb Your Enthusiasm.