‘Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie’ Review: A Star’s Dignity

This is probably less a critique than a thank-you note to director Davis Guggenheim and to the subject of “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie,” a marriage of exhilaration and sadness and, despite the title, the most moving thing on television. Mr. Fox was one of Hollywood’s biggest stars when he was diagnosed in 1991 with Parkinson’s disease, which finally forced his full retirement in 2021. His sense of humour remains a wonder. Something most viewers will only have to wonder, fortunately, is whether they would maintain the same dignity under the same set of circumstances.

The title, “Still,” describes something the actor never seemed to be, as evidenced by the voluminous collection of film clips Mr. Guggenheim uses to structure much of the film—Mr. Fox was always running, from “Teen Wolf,” to “The Secret of My Success,” to “Bright Lights, Big City,” to the blockbuster “Back to the Future” franchise and in and out of “Family Ties,” the sitcom that established his comedy credentials and wide appeal. Much of the background action, as well as Mr. Fox’s early biography, is covered through dramatic re-creations and otherwise unconnected film scenes knitted into a coherent narrative. The research must have been strenuous; the editing, too. The pace is nonstop, the humour abundant, the devotion of Mr. Fox’s wife, actress Tracy Pollan, is made plain, and there’s no small amount of nostalgia in store for people who know and love the Fox filmography. But the heart and soul of the film are the face-to-face interviews, which are far less delicate than one might expect. And all the deeper for it.

Seven interviews were conducted over the span of a year, and at one point Mr. Fox and his director (an Oscar winner for “An Inconvenient Truth”) are getting back together after some time, the subject recounting how he basically had, in the interim, fallen and broken his face. Mr. Guggenheim reacts with alarm; his subject is almost blasé. “Gravity is real,” he says, laughing. “Even if you’re only falling from my height.” During a walk along Fifth Avenue with an aide, Mr. Fox is recognised by a fan and when he turns to say hello back, he topples to the sidewalk. “You knocked me off my feet,” he tells the passerby. Everyone smiles, but it breaks your heart.

“I can see in your eyes that you’ve got a great one-liner,” Mr. Guggenheim says to the actor at a point in their exchanges, “and then it has a problem getting to your mouth.” Mr. Fox doesn’t disagree; he doesn’t have to, and often lets a nonresponse compensate when a response would be thwarted by his ailment. As Mr. Guggenheim says, the predictable storyline in a Michael J. Fox movie now would be about a huge star getting a debilitating disease and being crushed by it. “Yeah,” Mr. Fox says, “that’s boring.” Nothing in “Still” is the least bit boring.

Nor is it preachy, or weepy, or looking for pity for its subject, who isn’t looking for any either. He does recall feeling at some point, post-diagnosis, that he was somehow reaping cosmic payback for the enormous if less-than-overnight success he had enjoyed after several seemingly immovable objections fell and he was cast in “Family Ties.” (His tales of Hollywood poverty are close to harrowing although, as he might say, he got over it.) If there’s a flaw in “Still,” it might be Mr. Fox’s reluctance to discuss his physical agony or the psychic struggle that comes with Parkinson’s. (“The worst thing is to be confined,” he says, answering one of Mr. Guggenheim’s very direct questions. “To have no way out.”) You come close, Mr. Guggenheim says about Mr. Fox discussing his pain, “and then you dart away.” But that is a principal reason his subject, and film, are so involving and watchable and rich.

Australian property has always been a national obsession, but the way Australians learn about it has changed fundamentally. Where previous generations relied on a real estate agent’s advice and a bank manager’s approval, today’s buyers and investors are walking into the market with suburb-by-suburb data, auction strategy insights and valuation knowledge that would have required a professional consultation five years ago.

The ten creators on this list are the reason why. What distinguishes them from the broader landscape of property content is not their following size but the professional substance behind what they publish. Most have spent years doing the work, valuing, buying, negotiating, financing, before they ever picked up a camera. The audience can feel that difference, even when they cannot articulate it.

Today’s buyers are walking into the market with knowledge that would have required a professional consultation five years ago. These ten creators are the reason why.

1 –Tom Panos: Founder, Real Estate Gym

Tom Panos is the highest-profile real estate trainer in Australia, which is a distinction earned over more than two decades of working directly with agents, auctioneers and principals across the country. The content he publishes, on auction strategy, market psychology, agent mindset and the mechanics of negotiation, is backed by a career that predates social media by years.

What makes his presence exceptional is that he speaks to both sides of the transaction simultaneously. Agents follow him for craft. Buyers and investors follow him for intelligence. It is a rare position, and it explains why his audience has grown consistently through every market condition since he began publishing.

2 – Belinda Botzolis: Certified Practising Valuer; Founder, “The Valuer”

The gap that Belinda Botzolis identified and occupied is one that, in retrospect, seems obvious: professional property valuation, made accessible on social media. With seventeen years of practice as a Certified Practising Valuer, more than 15,000 individual property valuations completed, and over $12 billion in real estate assessed, she brought to social media something most content creators in this space cannot fake, a professional opinion.

The response has been significant. Over 20 million TikTok views for valuation content is not an accident. It reflects an audience that has long wanted access to qualified property analysis and found it, for the first time, without having to pay for a report.

3 – George Markoski: Founder, Positive Property

Photo: George Markoski, Positive Property

The credibility order matters in property investment content. George Markoski built a portfolio of more than 100 investment properties and retired at thirty-seven on passive income before he built a social media following. That sequencing, wealth first, content second, is the foundation of why his audience trusts him with decisions that carry six and seven-figure consequences.

His content covers RBA decisions, APRA changes and property cycles with the kind of strategic depth that comes from having navigated them personally. He is not forecasting the market from a position of theory. He is reporting from a position of ownership.

4 – Ravi Sharma: Founder, Search Property

Ravi Sharma‘s differentiator is structural: he runs an actual buyer’s agency. The suburb analyses, growth projections and investment frameworks he publishes on YouTube and social media are not constructed for content, they are the methodology his business uses to advise paying clients on real transactions. With more than 114,000 YouTube subscribers and a Bachelor of Business in Real Estate, his content sits at the intersection of professional advice and public education.

The result is content that reads like genuine analysis rather than commentary, because in most cases it is.

5 – Damien Cooley: Director, Cooley Auctions

Damien Cooley has called more auctions on live television than almost anyone in the country, a five-time premiere auctioneer on The Block, and 2015 Auctioneer of the Year. As Director of Cooley Auctions, his authority comes from decades on the rostrum in front of real buyers and real stakes, not from a studio.

His social presence extends that same on-the-ground credibility online, breaking down auction strategy and market sentiment for an audience that wants to understand the mechanics of a sale, not just the result.

6 – Ella Cas: Buyer’s Agent

As a buyer’s agent operating across Melbourne and its surrounding suburbs, Ella Cas brings professional transaction experience to a TikTok presence that covers market trends, price predictions and first home buyer strategy in the Victorian market. What distinguishes her content from general property commentary is its specificity: she is talking about markets she works in, for outcomes she is paid to deliver.

For Melbourne buyers navigating one of Australia’s most competitive property environments, that local professional knowledge, delivered in an accessible format, is exactly the kind of content that earns genuine audience loyalty.

7 – Gavin Rubinstein: Founder, The Rubinstein Group at Ray White TPG

Photo: Gavin Rubeinstein, The Rubeinstein Group

Gavin Rubinstein built The Rubinstein Group at Ray White TPG into one of Sydney’s highest-performing individual real estate practices, and his Instagram engagement outranks every major franchise account in the country. That distinction matters: he is not a media personality who sells property, he is a top-performing agent whose content reflects live transactions in one of Australia’s most competitive markets.

For buyers and sellers trying to understand how Sydney’s top end actually moves, his day-to-day content is closer to a transaction diary than a highlight reel.

8 – Robbo Roper: Mortgage expert & home buyer connector

Robbo Roper‘s content sits at the junction of property aspiration and mortgage reality, which is precisely where most first home buyers get stuck. As a mortgage expert and home buyer connector, he publishes short-form video that walks Australian buyers through the finance side of property ownership: what to expect from a broker, how to prepare for a loan application, what the common mistakes look like.

His placement in Favikon’s Top 20 Australian real estate influencers for 2025 reflects an audience that is not just watching but acting, the kind of content engagement that distinguishes an education account from an entertainment one.

9 – Michael Biviano: Property developer; business coach & real estate strategist

Michael Biviano built his platform on the strategy side of the business, working as a speaker, business coach and property developer before turning that experience into content for agents and investors navigating the industry. His focus sits less on individual listings and more on the frameworks behind sustainable success in real estate.

That distinction, teaching the business of property rather than just showcasing it, is what places him among the professionals worth following rather than just watching.

10 – Consulting by PK: Investment property educator

The property content space has no shortage of people telling audiences what to buy. What is rarer, and more valuable, is someone teaching them how to decide. Consulting by PK builds investment theses from actual data: top 5 per cent growth property analysis, cashflow modelling, suburb research methodology, the frameworks behind the conclusions rather than just the conclusions themselves.

With more than 60,000 YouTube subscribers, the audience that follows this content is a specific and self-selecting one, investors who want to understand the process, not just receive the output. That is a harder audience to build and a more durable one.

What this list reflects, taken together, is a professionalisation of property content in Australia. The era of anonymous property spruikers making market predictions without credentials or accountability is being displaced, slowly, but measurably, by practitioners who are willing to put their professional reputation behind what they publish. That is good for the industry. It is better for the buyers.

‘Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie’ Review: A Star’s Dignity

Weaving together film clips, dramatic re-creations and interviews with the actor, this affecting documentary on Apple TV+ explores his life with Parkinson’s disease.

From auction floors to TikTok — the professionals who made property education a public good