Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie (Guggenheim, 2023) is streaming on AppleTV+
The 2023 Emmy nominations were announced this morning and, while I usually set little store by awards at this stage of proceedings, I was delighted to see Davis Guggenheim’s documentary about Michael J. Fox nominated in three seven categories – the most for any “non-fiction program”.
Still: A Michael J. Fox Story serves viewer and subject extremely well. What might easily have been a rehash of relatively well-known ground becomes insightful and moving, especially Fox’s own self-awareness. He is candid about his failings in early life and extremely grateful for the happiness he has found with his family, despite the demonstrable ravages of the Parkinson’s that he lives with every day.
Guggenheim has found a useful way to use moments from Fox’s career to illustrate the part of the story we are in – not just ‘this is what Fox was shooting at this period of his life’ but lines, moments, looks, etc. plucked out of context to create scenes of their own.
Combined with some dramatic recreations – which I tend not to be fond of – it means that a mostly talking head biography has more visual interest than they usually have.
Further Reading and Listening
At RNZ, I wrote about the fetish some cinephiles still have for old school 35mm and 70mm film, and why I believe this is misplaced.
And on Sunday afternoon (for a programme that for the time being is actually called Sunday Afternoons) I interviewed Neil Lambert from Silky Otter, a chain who have defied conventional wisdom and continued to open new cinemas despite pandemics, the boom of home streaming and an uncertain future for theatrical exhibition.
