[Rating: Rock Fist Way Up]
Now streaming on Apple TV+
Michael J. Fox has been a household name since his star turn in the 1980s with the television show Family Ties. In the summer of 1985, he would rise to international stardom with one small movie about a teenager going back to the past and trying to get back to the future.
Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie sees Fox in his first onscreen role (albeit a documentary but hey, a movie nonetheless) in a few years. This time, he gets to tell his story from his rise to stardom, his Parkinsons diagnosis and the personal battles he has faced all these years. Helmed by director Davis Guggenheim (director of An Inconvenient Truth), Fox gets to sit and let his fans know how he looks at his own life past, present and future.
Through this documentary, audiences who haven’t already read Fox’s various memoirs get to know the real man. He always wanted to be seen as a nice guy and never wanted to be a jerk, that was what won even his future wife over. What is the most interesting aspect of this film however is how he discovered his Parkinsons diagnosis. We get to experience his story firsthand and how it was a scary experience to be diagnosed at a young age, still in the prime of his career. We learn how he tried to hide it from co-stars of his 90s sitcom Spin City and how he could prevent noticeable quivers in his hands. This all then led to Fox experiencing such denial that he turned to drinking in order to suppress fear and anger. Even now in his talking head interviews he knows that he’s scared of how much worse his prognosis could be, but keeps looking forward to the optimism he has every day.
One of the best aspects of this documentary is the editing. It very skillfully takes footage from interviews, television shows, behind the scenes of Back to the Future and recreation to show Fox hard at work. Pay close attention to some of the best documentary editing during the Back to the Future segment and how it seems so effortless to combine so many things at once as Fox narrates.
I have always been a big fan of Michael J. Fox. This stems from remembering my parents watching Spin City and introducing me to Back to the Future at a young age. I wish him nothing but the best. This documentary is so wholesome and reflects his life in the most wonderful and warming way possible!
Christian Ramos is a classic film fan, having had the dream to host Turner Classic Movies for years now. He also has a large amount of Oscar trivia in his head, remembers dressing as Groucho Marx one Halloween, and cherishes the moment Julianne Moore liked his tweet.
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