'Still' review: Michael J. Fox documentary will make you love him even more

Fox tackles Parkinson's Disease with a candid tenacity.

Throughout the well-made Apple TV Plus documentary, Still, there’s a running joke about the amount of times Michael J. Fox takes a hard fall. With Parkinson’s Disease and older age trying to pound him to the ground, all this guy wants to do every day is get up and not fall down shortly afterwards. It’s that lighter touch, arriving with just the right amount of comedy, that allows viewers to get to know Fox even more.

What David Guggenheim’s movie does so well is pull us in closer to the daily struggles and reality of its star. While there’s a good dive into Fox’s past and how he became so big on television and then in the movies, Still remains in a seated position in the present. Sitting in a chair and staring the audience down, his weary gaze and unbreakable spirit create a triumphant atmosphere of entertainment.

Fox has always been extremely likable, and that’s something that developed way before the disease ever grasped his life. The happy-go-lucky Canadian kid who struck gold with Family Ties and Back to the Future was in for the fight of his life suddenly in his 30s. What you think you know about his fight is a lot smaller before Guggenheim’s doc begins, something that draws you in even closer to him.

Upon being diagnosed, Fox did what most people don’t do: continue to work and live a normal life. The tremors were silenced or strangled so to speak by pills he popped between takes on a set, willing his body (and mind) to finish the job. What he was doing was denying the obvious: an immovable force had met an unstoppable spirit, and life as he knew it was changing.

Fox faces all of it in the 90-minute film with a true tenacity, the kind of bullshit-less vigor that can be appreciated. It reminded me of when Patrick Swayze stared down one of the most deadliest diseases in the world in pancreatic cancer with a stoic pride that was so unordinary. He looked into Barbara Walters eyes and told her he wasn’t scared of dying.

While Fox may be petrified of Parkinson’s overtaking him, he rarely lets you see it. Whether it’s making it from one point to the next with his physical therapist or simply walking on a beach with his family, Fox just keeps going. He could be sitting in the interview chair with a cast on his arm and a black eye, but he’s there and not stopping. It’s an empowering feeling that should reinvigorate the viewer instead of depressing them.

Here’s another thing that’s great about Still: it’s a lot of Fox, and not just a bunch of his friends and colleagues talking about him. Most docs starve out time with the central subject, instead burying the audience in a sea of stories. Those sideviews are always welcome and his rise/fall/rise tale is fully laid out by Guggenheim, but most of the running time here is made up of candidly intimate moments.

Fox talking about the hold that alcoholism and addiction had on him in 1993 after being diagnosed doesn’t pull any punches. Drugs could have been a detour into unsafe waters for him, and he swum around in it for a while. But that tungsten spirit of his never wavered, even when he hit rock bottom while enjoying a comeback with Spin City. How does one deal with a rising, passionate career and ward off all the evil shit that can sneak into a person’s life after a terrible diagnosis?

Fox may not give you the answers, but fully grasping and understanding his world and its massive change in the 90s will make you love him more. Human beings deal with things in their own way, and it’s unfair to judge someone’s experience on a ill-fated roller coaster that you’ve never rode before. He just makes you appreciate his recovery, and your life all at once.

The power of Michael J. Fox didn’t dim with Parkinson’s, Still assures us. It somehow made one of Hollywood’s most endurable stars even more magnetic and courageous.

Find it on Apple TV Plus. Just do it. One month. Binge all the shows and movies, including Still.