Michael J. Fox, rightly regarded as a hero having raised a billion dollars in research funds for Parkinson’s disease, now stars in “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie,” streaming Friday on AppleTV+.
Directed by Davis Guggenheim, an Oscar-winning documentarian for “An Inconvenient Truth,” “Still” mixes scenes from Fox’s career, new interviews and archival material to let Fox, 62 next month, tell his story in his own way.
The movie offers re-enactments from Fox’s movies and blurs the line between the man and the characters he plays. It uses moments in his movies to portray moments in his life, like meeting Tracy Pollan, his wife.
“I was excited,” Guggenheim, 59, said in a joint virtual press conference with Fox, “to try this idea of, Can you make a documentary that feels like an ‘80s movie? Something that’s big, something’s that fun, a lot of laughs, big music. And part of that is to put ‘80s and ‘90s movies in it.
“It’s a different kind of documentary. It’s a wild ride in the way that those movies felt like at the time.”
Fox, who was diagnosed at 30 with Parkinson’s and went public with his condition in 1998, has continued to act and penned four best-selling books, beginning with “Lucky Man: A Memoir” in 2002.
“We started with Michael’s four books,” Guggenheim explained. “If you haven’t read the books, they’re incredible and incredibly revealing. Two were especially relevant to what we’re doing, with these powerful scenes. We mapped out a version of them; Michael gave us this incredible map to follow.
“And then it changed. Scenes of Michael with his family, with his doctor, are scenes we didn’t know was going to happen.”
“The film,” Fox declared, “is much more than my books. It’s a whole journey of its own.”
Guggenheim knew that whatever success “Still” would find would be because of Fox and his positive attitude.
“A lot of people are guarded about what they’re sharing. Michael,” he discovered, “is a total open book. Which says a lot about him.
“Michael’s funny and I have to say before I found your book (I read it during the pandemic), I was low and depressed. I think I needed a movie and a story like this – I needed to laugh a bit.”
“My thing in any case is: What’s the funny part?” Fox offered. “There is something about this tragedy that can bring you low but it’s more challenging and rewarding to ask, What’s universally human in this? And what I find universal is funny.”
What the filmmaker found: “Michael’s full of optimism.
“You have a lot of falls,” he said to Fox, “you’re in a lot of pain. But his attitude is to see the brighter side of things. That is infectious.”
“Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie” streams May 12 on AppleTV+