Still Review

Michael J. Fox rides in the Delorean to tell his life story

BY JULIE ANN GRIMM editor@sfreporter.com

It’s tempting to describe the arc of Michael J. Fox’s advocacy for Parkinson’s research in a direct course from the actor’s diagnosis at age 29 with an early onset of the disease. Yet, the new documentary Still candidly explains how Fox hid his illness for seven years before he publicly acknowledged what he thought at first must be the “cosmic price” he had to pay for skyrocketing Hollywood success.

The script distills some of Fox’s wordsmithing from his four books into a story that vacillates between the late-night circuit and the red carpet, and his daily reality of medication and physical therapy to adjust to diminishing functions. There’s a good measure of nostalgia as many viewers already know the story: His breaks came first with TV sitcoms, then stardom followed when Back to the Future and Teen Wolf hit No. 1 and No. 2 on the Blockbuster chart the same week in August of 1985.

Director Davis Guggenheim makes great use

Roughly six years to the day after the emergence of the second Guardians of the Galaxy movie, director James Gunn closes out his popular trilogy based on the Marvel Comics heroes’ squad in space. Gunn, you might recall, was fired by Marvel’s Disney overlords some years back after a number of unsavory and aged tweets surfaced. But after helming HBO’s Peacemaker (a DC property, no less; Gunn ultimately took over that company’s entire filmic operations, too), he came back into the fold and now gets to do it his way (play Sinatra song in your head here).

Vol. 3 comes across as a bit of an outlier when it comes to Marvel’s stable. It’s a little less Marvel-y than the behemoth’s other properties. Guardians is supposed to cool, too, bro. You’re gonna hear Beastie Boys and Florence and the Machine songs play while Starlord (Chris Pratt, or Crisp Rat if you’re nasty), Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista), Mantis (Pom Klementieff), Groot (Vin Diesel), Nebula (Karen Gillan) and Gamora (Zoe Saldaña) phase between badassery and kicky little jokes.

It is *air quotes* radical. Still, despite the very real Marvel fatigue so many are feeling after years of multiple yearly movies and television shows, comics, streaming one-offs, etc., Gunn actually manages to eke out an enjoyable, if wildly pre- of Fox’s myriad roles, using clips from The Secret of My Success and Family Ties, for example, as story devices in Fox’s own timeline. In Still’s interview segments, Fox discusses the irony that for the early years of his television and movie career, he never stopped moving. Then, as the tremors, rigid muscles and spasms that characterize the disease descended on him, stillness eluded him in a new, involuntary way.

The Marty McFly sparkle lingers in his blue eyes, but looking into Fox’s 61-year-old face as he struggles to form words can take one’s breath away. He explains a thrust into work, depression and alcoholism that comprised his initial response to the illness; he dictable, sci-fi romp with some notably beautiful special effects and a whole lot of chosen family thematics at play. only went public after it became too difficult to hide. Pity him not, Fox admonishes: “If you pity me, it’s never going to get to me. I’m not pitiful. I’ve got shit going on. I am a tough son of a bitch. I am a cockroach.”

All in all, though, this is a film about Rocket Raccoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper), that little humanoid raccoon whom we all love because why is a raccoon talking and flying spaceships and shooting lasers? Anyway, he’s straight up unconscious this time out, following an attack by series newcomer Adam Warlock (Will Poulter) who has come for mysterious but probably also nefarious reasons. He works for the High Evolutionary (an honestly excellent Chukwudi Iwuji from Peacemaker), whom, we learn through a series of flashbacks, plays a prominent role in Rocket’s very existence and is out there doing genocide on a planetary scale. Rocket’s flashbacks are easily the most enjoyable parts of the film, and rather emotional to boot. Gunn’s writing evolution really shows in these scenes, even if they are heavy-handed—compare that to the samey fasttalking yuks found elsewhere throughout.

Of course, if you’ve been following along this whole time, you’ll certainly get a sense of satisfaction when the credits roll. And though the story belongs to Rocket, no question, the ultimate fates of his fellow Guardians are satisfying and bittersweet. The endings of their disparate stories feel more grown up than expected and show that Gunn has matured as a filmmaker. Also a bunch of shit blows up. (Alex De Vore) Violet Crown, Regal, PG-13, 150 min.

True that: Fox famously fought back by establishing a philanthropic foundation for Parkinson’s research and advocating to Congress. To date, he’s raised more than $2 billion and he’s still at it.

ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT’S ME, MARGARET

9 + MOVING PERFORMANCES - MISSED OPPORTUNITY FOR JUDY BLUME CAMEO

Spoiler alert: Yes, God is there. “There” being the mind, heart and soul of not-quite-12-yearold Margaret Simon (rendered wonderfully with humor and winsomeness by Abby Ryder Fortson), who would like divine intervention so she can: get her period, grow breasts, fit in with her friends and determine to which, if any, religion she belongs.

In other words, Simon is struggling with a combination of puberty and existential angst, and she’s doing so in a very specific time and place: 1970, in the wood-paneled, green-lawned New Jersey suburbs where her parents have unceremoniously relocated her from New York City just in time to start sixth grade.

Are you There God? It’s Me Margaret, of course, is based on the 1970 Judy Blume novel of the same name, a book that has been read by millions, banned periodically since its publication and remained, despite the significant cultural shifts in the last half-century, significant enough to finally earn a bigscreen debut.

If you’ve been hiding out from popular culture, Judy Blume is having a moment; a new documentary about her also debuted on Amazon this month (Judy Blume Forever). The 85-year-old writer serves as producer on Are you There God? and remains an unflinching champion of reading and anti-censorship efforts (she and her husband run an independent nonprofit bookstore in Key West, Florida).

The film mostly hews to its source material. Margaret isn’t the only Simon searching for answers: Her mother Barbara (a terrific Rachel McAdams) is taking the suburban relocation as an opportunity to become a stay-at-home mom versus an art teacher. She’s also reached out to her estranged conservative Christian parents who balked when their daughter married a Jewish man (a family show-down over which religion Margaret should follow is the only new material this viewer noticed). Margaret’s glamorous grandmother Sylvia (a hilarious Kathy Bates) has to learn to let go a little bit now that the family has decamped— although she jumps to take her granddaughter to Temple (and to see some live Gilbert and Sullivan, of course).

But those subplots, though threaded well throughout the film, are secondary to Margaret’s coming-of-age concerns. Writing for the New York Times, Elisabeth Egan notes the novel’s importance for “the girls of Generation X,” who grew up with rotary phones, listening to the radio in the hopes of hearing their favorite songs. In this way, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret’s belated film debut is perhaps less a tribute to its ongoing relevance than its nostalgic value for middle-aged women who love Judy Blume. Fortunately, we are legion.

(Julia Goldberg)

Violet Crown, Regal, PG-13, 105 minutes

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