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THE SECRET OF HIS SUCCESS (STILL: A MICHAEL J FOX MOVIE)

© Apple TV+

In the 1980s, Michael J Fox seemed to have it all.

His sitcom 'Family Ties' was a massive success, challenging 'The Cosby Show' and 'Cheers' in the ratings.

He also made a successful leap into movie acting with the iconic 'Back to the Future' trilogy but also scored box office hits with 'Teen Wolf,' 'The Secret of My Success' and 'Doc Hollywood'.

However, we all know by now that at the age of 30 in 1991 he revealed publicly that he had started to exhibit signs of early onset Parkinson's Disease.

© Apple TV+

Fox hasn't retreated from the public eye, though, as the disease has ravaged his body.

He has been a prominent campaigner for Parkinson's Disease research and has continued to act in TV shows like 'The Good Wife,' 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' and 'Designated Survivor'.

Now at the age of 61, he has teamed up with director Davis Guggenheim for a deeply personal reflection on his life and career for Apple TV+.

'Still: A Michael J Fox' story, though, isn't a depressing watch.

© Apple TV+

Far from it, it's a witty, unflinchingly honest account of the ups and downs in Fox's life and career and it thrives on his flair for a good quip.

Over the course of 90 minutes, Fox reflects on a remarkable life from his days as a rowdy, troubled teen from a small town near Vancouver who discovered acting in high school to getting his first big break on Canadian TV.

The actor reflects on his daring decision to go to LA and try and make a go of an professional acting career.

We see how he struggled for a while, before winning over the creators of 'Family Ties' during casting and becoming a huge success on the show as the eccentric Young Republican, Alex P Keaton.

© NBC and Paramount Television

Guggenheim and Fox chart the madness of his life when producer Steven Spielberg replaced Eric Stoltz with him for Robert Zemeckis' 'Back to the Future'.

This would see him being shuttled by a driver from the 'Family Ties' set to Universal to make the movie, grabbing sleep in transit and after a night's work on the film, returning home for three more hours of sleep before being packed off to work on episodes of his hit sitcom.

Convinced his performance in 'Back to the Future' was going to be a dud, Fox admits he was taken aback when it was a commercial and critical success, roaring to the top of the 1985 box office.

In its slipstream, Rod Daniel's coming of age comedy 'Teen Wolf' also performed well and Fox soon found himself riding a wave of Hollywood superstardom.


© Universal & Amblin Entertainment

Guggenheim and his editor Michael Harte cleverly illustrate Fox's account of his life with clips of his work and talk show appearances but also intersperse it with footage of him going about his life as he is now.

We see him working out and learning how to slow down as he walks.

There's lovely sequences of him laughing at himself with his family in the kitchen.

In another scene, he's walking along the street in Manhattan and falls, quipping to a passer-by that comes to his aid: "Nice to meet you. You knocked me off my feet!"

© Apple TV+

And while he is impressively frank about the ravages of Parkinson's on his body and his retreat for a while into alcoholism, he doesn't wallow in self-pity.

Very often, his natural gift for comedy shines through.

After sustaining an injury to his cheek in a fall in his home, Fox immediately makes a joke at the expense of notoriously being five foot four, observing: "Gravity is real, even if you fall only from my height."

This echoes a quip at the 1986 Emmys where on receiving the Best Actor in a Comedy gong, he declared: "I feel four feet tall!"

© HBO

Three big themes emerge in 'Still: A Michael J Fox Movie'.

One is his deep and undeniably redemptive love for his wife Tracy Pollan, who he acted opposite on 'Family Ties' and fell for after she called him out for being an asshole on set.

Another is the pressure of Hollywood superstardom, with Fox revealing the lengths he would go on and off set to conceal his Parkinson's while making the hit sitcom 'Spin City' before the symptoms became really noticeable.

The third is his iron like determination to make the best of a challenging condition.

© Apple TV+

Early on, as Guggenheim and Harte stitch together clips of him in TV shows and films where he always seems to be running, Fox expresses a desire for calmness and stillness.

Yet he also reflects on the importance of resilience.

"Some people would view the news of my disease as an ending but I was starting to sense that it was really a beginning," he observes at one point.

But while class is permanent, so is Fox's comic timing.

© Universal & Amblin Entertainment

Asked how he imagines himself in two decades time, Fox jokes: "If I'm still here in 20 years, I'll either be cured or a pickle."

In 20 years, thanks to Marty McFly and 'Back to the Future,' Fox will definitely not be forgotten.

However thanks to Guggenheim, his advocacy for Parkinson's sufferers and his determination in the face of adversity will also be rightly celebrated.

('Still: A Michael J Fox Movie ' was released in UK cinemas and rwas made available for streaming on Apple TV+ on May 12, 2023) 

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