exactly what a celebrity documentary should be… enlightening, inspiring, and constructed with care 🥲

Michael J. Fox makes Rocky Balboa look like a bitch. 

My documentary experience is regrettably underdeveloped but Still blew me away with its mixture of stylized narrative reenactment, archival footage, and fearless earnestness.  

This is a must watch, uplifting story not about pity, or tragedy, or shame but rather about rolling with the punches, family, and gratitude.

There’s some very deft use of archival footage here, sometimes to illustrate Fox’s stories and sometimes to undercut them. One really effective sequence goes back through his various film and TV projects of the ’90s — after he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s but before he announced it to the public — and shows all the ways he tried to hide his symptoms with props and postures and various bits of physical business.

This might be seen as a compliment or a complaint, but when it was over I wanted more; more about his acting career and choices, more about dealing with his illness, more about his family and marriage, more about his philanthropy and his outlook on life now. What’s here is very good, but it does feel like there was a fair amount left undiscussed.

STILL: A MICHAEL J. FOX MOVIE contains some of the best & most seamless blending of archival & reenactment footage I’ve ever seen to create an engaging documentary experience. Michael is a wonderful subject who brings humor, optimism & awareness to his story with Parkinson’s that continues to inspire to this day. May not reveal much new information but it’s great to see him telling his own story his way.

A largely nostalgic look at Michael J. Fox and a behind-the-scenes look at how his diagnosis with Parkinson’s disease affected his life and career.  Though there isn’t anything especially revelatory about this doc, it’s still fascinating to get a peak behind the curtain.  Fox didn’t make his diagnosis public for several years, initially trying to mask his condition with pills and other tricks. Seeing archive footage of him masking his left hand tremors through prop usage is illuminating. It’s a straight forward documentary, but an easy recommendation if you were a fan of his growing up, as I was. 

2023 Ranked

Degrees of Kevin Bacon: 1
1. Tracy Pollan and Kevin Bacon in The Tender Age

I just hope michael j fox knows that he has an endless sea of love from me.

LOVED the way archival and film footage was used here! The style never got old, and I kept looking forward to seeing what else they incorporate and how. Michael's spirit and energy are incredibly inspiring, and his sense of humor is such a delight! It feels a little brief, but it's a beautifully creative documentary. Between this and Val I'm very inspired to stop complaining about life and use my time better.

Michael J. Fox is such a likeable and invigorating presence, it was a complete delight to spend 90 minutes in his company. Still is a highly energetic documentary that is emotionally resonant, yes, but brilliantly entertaining and funny above all else. Davis Guggenheim’s piece, though not particularly innovative, admirably reflects the personality of the star at its centre.

Zu sehen, wie der Held meiner Kindheit auch heute noch so ein großes Vorbild ist, macht mich echt glücklich.

Still ist eine Dokumentation, die Michael J. Fox' Leben mit Parkinson nicht als Tragödie inszeniert, sondern stattdessen eine ermutigende Geschichte erzählt.

Es ist ein nostalgischer Einblick in die Karriere des Schauspielers und wie er damals mit der Diagnose in Zusammenhang mit seinem Beruf und seiner Familie umgegangen ist.

Die Dokumentation wird Fox' Schaffen, seiner sympathischen Person und seinem Humor mehr als gerecht und hebt dabei auch sein Engagement für die Parkinson-Forschung hervor.

In einer Szene erwähnt er, dass es ihn mit Stolz erfüllt, dass er als prominenter Mensch ein Vorbild für alle Leute ist, die das gleiche Schicksal teilen wie er. In einem Atemzug erwähnt er jedoch auch noch, dass es ihn überfordert, denn er hat trotzdem andauernd Angst, als dieses Vorbild zu scheitern.

This is to you, Michael J. Fox, the short king that you are🥂👑

There are lots of actor docs,
There are an awful lot of actor docs,
And this one's of Michael J. Fox.
Not many will,
Do what's in "Still",
Listening in on some his talks.