Still a Michael J. Fox Movie Sundance Film Festival Review: With an ’80s vibe, Davis Guggenheim’s documentary takes us back to the future of an unstoppable star

I like the Oscar winning title An inconvenient truth Documentary filmmaker Davis Guggenheim’s stunning new documentary on the life and times of Michael J. Fox. It is called Still a Michael J. Fox film. The Sundance website has a colon where you would expect it, right after Quiet, but the press releases don’t mention it, so I’m hoping that Apple Studios — which has set the film for an unspecified future release date and will have its world premiere Friday at the Sundance Film Festival — will make it official. That’s because Guggenheim and, more importantly, his editor, Michael Harte, simply created: A Michael J Fox Movie from start to finish and everything that goes with it.

In the spirit of the kind of films of the 1980s that made Fox a very big star on both the big and small screens, this hybrid uses documentary techniques – notably an interview with the star himself, interwoven with the deft use of archival footage and film clips. as well as scripted recreations with actors where necessary – to complete everything. The star here, as always, is Fox himself, who has struggled with the intense effects of Parkinson’s disease since he was diagnosed at the age of 29, but tells his story successfully and enthusiastically, a single shot with ‘ a talking head, straight into the camera.

The film leaves nothing behind, exploring his life as a Canadian kid with a loving family (mostly seen in remakes), catching the acting bug early and finding a string of television roles in Canada before taking the plunge and turning 17 left school and home to try his luck in Hollywood. From there, he chronicled his life from paycheck to paycheck, landed a few roles, was completely broke, almost quit, and then… got the role of his life as Alex P. Keaton in the pilot for family tieswhich NBC boss Brandon Tartikoff says (in an archived interview) was bound and determined never to do.

From there, Fox describes his rise to movie stardom as an original choice for Back to the Future as Marty McFly. However, he was never told anything about the role family ties Producer Gary David Goldberg, who never shared the script sent by producer Steven Spielberg because he couldn’t keep Fox out of the production. It wasn’t until star Eric Stoltz was fired two weeks into filming that SOS called Goldberg back and Fox was assembled. family ties set day and future at night for 2 1/2 months.

The documentary describes the later film success; a second series turn city; his meeting, romance and marriage to Tracy Pollan; and of course his increasing battle with a malignant disease that he refused to give up no matter how bad it got. Fox talks about the little techniques he used to hide it in public and at performances until he finally broke the news, as well as starting his foundation to find a cure — an effort that has raised more than $1 billion collected what was brought in and still going strong. Fox only received an Oscar in November with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

The final Governors Awards ceremony is not in this film, but I was in that room where Fox charmingly and hilariously accepted, a man who won’t let whatever the award is. It was so touching to see his peers give him a standing ovation that night, and just as touching to watch this film documenting the unstoppable force that is Michael J. Fox.

So back to the title. To tell the full story of Fox’s life, Guggenheim originally wanted to use footage from Fox’s acting in a more traditional way, until Harte devised a plan to insert actual footage from Fox’s actual roles in film and television to to show what’s going on. in his real life. Like Fox telling the story of how he got the role back to the future, visually it is told with shots of the star in another of his films, Bright lights, big city. A date with Pollan is illustrated with footage of them from a movie in which they both starred. The technology is used everywhere so successfully that Harte will award editorial prizes in the future. It is inspired.

Guggenheim based his film on Fox’s memoir, and with Fox in front of the camera he surprisingly created a new memoir as vivid, entertaining and insightful as Yes. A Michael J Fox Movie.