Movie Review -I'm Still Here

I'm Still Here (2010)

Starring Joaquin Phoenix

Directed by Casey Affleck
***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

In the winter of 2009, Academy Award-nominated actor Joaquin Phoenix went on Late Show with David Letterman and acted like an ass.  No other term to describe it, really.  Phoenix had decided to quit acting and become a rap superstar.  Folks weren't sure if this was all a large-scale Andy Kaufman-esque hoax or if the guy was genuinely serious.  If anything, I'm Still Here unequivocally states that it was a joke, but the faux-documentary also is one heckuva enjoyable film with an incredibly amusing performance from Phoenix as he slowly deteriorates into a humorously frightening version of himself. 

Phoenix and director Casey Affleck say that they created I'm Still Here as a riff on reality tv, playing off of the idea that people genuinely believe that reality isn't scripted for the purposes of entertainment.  In order and try and create the most believable "fake Joaquin" persona as possible, for nearly a year, at every public appearance made by Phoenix, he "played" the role of drunken, drugged "celebrity" who had seemingly fallen off of his rocker.  Admittedly, even to me who only saw clips of Phoenix in passing, it seemed that he truly had decided to pursue this rap career.  On film, however, it was pretty obvious from the get go that this whole shindig was scripted.

Somehow, though, this weird scripted mockumentary works and it's in large part due to Phoenix totally inhabiting this character.  He's a nut...it's obvious...but it never seems over the top.  Phoenix is never the person that makes this "documentary" seem fake.  It's the other celebs around him and their "scripted" comments that clue the viewer in on the veracity of the film's agenda (that and the fact that there's a cast list in the credits that lists "Joaquin's Father" as an Affleck which should have clued a good bunch of the critics in on the elaborate piece of performance art they just witnessed).  Also cluing me in to the "unreality" of the situation is the fact that Casey Affleck does a much too eloquent job directing for the whole thing to be fake.  Once again, this isn't a fault of the piece.  In fact, the direction is very good, but the smoothness of the whole thing and the completely obvious set-ups for camera shots makes me amazed that critics didn't understand this film for what it was.

Honestly, I was expecting to despise this film.  I remember watching The Man in the Moon many years ago which depicted Andy Kaufman's life and thinking that the guy -- a full-out performance artist known for his elaborate hoaxes and jokes -- was a complete jerk.  I didn't get the humor in his "art."  In I'm Still Here, though, I was thoroughly amused.  I'm not quite sure Phoenix and Affleck (the co-writers of the piece) necessarily made their point about the "perils of celebrity" and the "deception" that is reality television, but I was amused nonetheless.

The RyMickey Rating:  B+