STILL: A Michael J. Fox Movie Reflects On An Icon Still On The Move

STILL: A Michael J. Fox Movie Reflects On An Icon Still On The Move

It boggles the mind to consider the giant success Michael J. Fox achieved at such a young age. It’s even crazier to realize he received his Parkinson’s diagnosis at the same age as I am writing this now. He was 29.

This makes it sound like an obituary — a death knell — and if Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie shows us anything, it’s the extinguishable spirit and lust for life that has kept this man going for decades. He’s unstoppable on so many fronts and remains a stunning encouragement and role model for many.

As he sits down to tell his own story with director David Guggenheim, Fox is the first to acknowledge he’s constantly been moving. Even before Parkinson’s, he was never still. As a kid in Canada, he was the smallest guy in all of his classes; he used his speed to run away from bullies and his sense of humor to make the big guys laugh. It meant they would be less likely to hit you. Amid the fear and insecurity we all face in adolescence, he found drama class.

The Rise Of Michael J. Fox

Although he started out young, Fox certainly was bolstered by support from his father. Though he had no illusions about Hollywood, Fox‘s dad still backed him to go to L.A. In those very early years, he lived in the “slums of Beverly Hills,” picking up some gigs but not enough to sustain him.

By the time he was 22 years old, he had been fighting for three years to make it, and he was running dangerously low on money. Down to nothing. It sounds like hyperbole, but Fox certifies that it isn’t. Still, the young actor bet on himself, and as he says, as long as you have “a chip and a chair” you’re still able to stay in the game.

Then, everything changed when he got Family Ties. Thanks to the laughter when he walked onto the set and said his lines that first day, he knew he struck a chord. Fox instantly became America’s favorite snarky Milton Friedman acolyte, Alex P. Keaton. I was born after the fact, but even watching reruns, it becomes evident why the whole show seemed to revolve around him. Michael J. Fox is electric.

Just imagine. At the height of his meteoric rise, he spent the days shooting Family Ties. Then, at 6 every evening he would be shuttled on-location for Back to the Future to work until just before sunrise. Once more he’d be shuttled home for a few hours of sleep and start it all over again. Even his detailing of the daily regimen is exhausting! It’s a miracle that it all came together. And it turned him into a sensation — the hottest thing in Hollywood — landing him on all the magazine covers and every talk show imaginable.

The amount of moment-by-moment footage the production has is part of what really sets its presentation apart. Aside from some of the dramatizations early on, there are sequences involving Family Ties where we feel totally immersed because the actual footage is right in front of us. It feels like we’re getting a behind-the-scenes look at a star being born.

Guggenheim also pulls from all the star’s biographical recollections as narrated by Fox himself. It allows him the space to tell his own story as he is right now. It does an amiable job of illuminating the details of his life thus far while further integrating the rhythms of his life in the present day.

Love & Hardship

Fox makes an interesting observation about how achieving fame so rapidly at such a young age means you are putting on a life and experiencing things that are not real. While Parkinson’s might be devastating, there’s no denying that it’s totally real. It’s all there and you cannot escape the immediacy of it.

It’s evident Fox could not have maintained such a chipper and indefatigable spirit over the year if it wasn’t for the love of his life. Ever since I first started watching reruns of Family Ties, I’ve been captivated by the love story between Fox and Tracy Pollan — a connection that was first introduced onscreen through the show.

STILL: A Michael J. Fox Movie Reflects On An Icon Still On The Move
source: Appletv+

Pollan was grounded in the theater that contrasts with what Fox terms his “find the laugh approach.” Watching those episodes, although they’re scripted, they always carried this undertone of something true. Alex is dismissive and brash, slightly intimidated by Ellen Reed, someone who is quietly smart and confident. So different than him and still a wonderful counterpoint.

In real life, Pollan called out Fox‘s behavior when very few people would. He admits, “A pig is a pig no matter how many hit movies he’s just had.” It showed character on Pollan‘s part, and in the numbing deluge of fame, Fox recognized her humbling sense of honesty. Between her guesting on Family Ties and their movie together, Bright Lights, Big City, he fell in love with her.

Pollan enters the documentary in the present to punctuate one of the best Hollywood love stories around, one that’s still going strong. In a different telling, the Parkinson’s diagnosis would have spelled the end of the relationship. It doesn’t matter if you’re a movie star. Parkinson’s shows no partiality. Still, Fox had found someone who was prepared for the long haul. Tracy reminded him of their wedding vows: “In sickness and in health.”

Even as he masked his tremors while continuing to work and started to drink to dissociate from his situation, she remained by his side. It’s painful watching some of the clips from Spin City, his next hit show, because we recognize how he was medicating and trying to keep his body in check. It was a losing battle. Finally, in 1998 he vowed to share it with the world while he was still shooting the show, prepared to live with the consequences.

Conclusion: Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie

Michael J. Fox wasn’t mandated to do any of the things he did, and yet after sharing his diagnosis with the world, he became a foremost champion of Parkinson’s research raising more than $1 billion to date!

In one particularly vulnerable moment, Fox admits his world is getting smaller. He loves his mind and where it takes him, and obviously he doesn’t want to lose that capacity. Maybe somewhere inside of him, there is the desire to do this documentary as a living record of his life and his memories.

For now, he’s comfortable being who he is. He can’t help being anyone else because his body won’t allow it. Yes, his walking still freaks people out from time to time, but he won’t hide it so the chips fall where they may. People can react however they want.

Even as he battles day-to-day with the realities of the disease — his body rarely works the way he wants it to — it’s a joy to see Fox surrounded by his family and armed with the same sense of humor. It would be easy to look at his great success and bitter misfortune and pity him for the latter.

But as he continues to be in the public eye, always active with new projects and appearances, my bet is Michael J. Fox considers himself a prince more than a pauper. He tells the camera with a wry smile, “I’m a tough S.O.B.” That he is. He’s also given the world a lot of joy, and he’s still on the move. I doubt that will stop any time soon.

Still: A Michael J. Fox Story is available to stream on Apple TV+.


Watch Still: A Michael J. Fox Story

 

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