by Aaron Schweitzer, Editor
If you’re not watching this season of Ted Lasso (and even if you are), I would not be surprised if you haven’t heard about Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie. Since I was born in 1995, I grew up with Back to the Future and Teen Wolf, but I didn’t really grow up with Michael J. Fox, especially compared someone who grew up in the ‘80s. Regardless of my inexperience, I was excited to check out this documentary to learn about his life, and a bit more about how Parkinson’s Disease affects people.
The two things that stood out to me most about this documentary were how it is not just about Fox’s struggle with Parkinson’s, but is equally about his career, and how raw his experience actually is. Opening on the day when he realized something was wrong, the film immediately let me know that it was not going to be easy to watch. It then goes back to Fox’s early life and career, and his rise to popularity. As we’re experiencing his life, it is intercut with scenes in the present of Fox’s struggle with Parkinson’s.
One of the highlights was the questions the interviewer asked. He makes comments on Fox’s thinking, and asks leading questions to get to a deeper place. At the most heartbreaking moment of the documentary, he asks Fox why he wants to tell his story now, and the answer feels so genuine, and made me more captivated by this film which already had me fully invested.
I have two small gripes, though I’m not sure if it is only due to what I preferred, or whether it will strike more people as odd as well. The first is that while the film encompasses Fox’s whole life, there is a section on his struggle with alcoholism which feels big, but is presented more as a footnote. Maybe it was always intended to be that way, but it feels off-putting given the film was not afraid to explore every other aspect of his life. My second gripe is the film really only focuses on Fox’s struggle with Parkinson’s, and not a more general understanding of it. As someone who has had the fortune of not knowing someone who struggled with the disease, I am still very curious on the subject and would like to know more. The film is really all about Fox, so it is easy to forgive that one, but I had hoped it might be a mouthpiece to talk about it on a big platform.
At the end of the day, this is just a well-crafted documentary, and at a brisk 95 minutes, it never overstays its welcome. It is not revolutionary, but it is really well done, and that is about all you can really ask for.
Score 8/10
Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie is in theaters and streaming on Apple TV+
You can read more from Aaron Schweitzer, and follow him on Twitter and Letterboxd