It is easy to get caught up in satisfying social media soundbites about discourses that deal with disease. Inspiring! Uplifting! Life-affirming! And, indeed, these obvious platitudes could be applied to Still, Michael J. Fox’s poignant documentary of his life with Parkinson’s disease.
But this is actually a documentary about the sudden and then continuous reality check of a lifelong condition. Michael J. Fox received his diagnosis in the early 1990s and this film reflects on over three decades of adjustment – seen through the literal lens of Fox’s cinematic and television oeuvre, along with his unflinching descriptions.
All the while, the audience wrestles with the irony of Michael J. Fox, time traveller, being struck down by a disease he was powerless to alter. Yes, there is real pathos in this film.
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