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An Exercise In Nonsense

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Remember that time when everyone thought that Joaquin Phoenix went AWOL from acting and became a rapper? Remember when everyone thought he went nuts because of his bizarre appearance on Letterman? Well, it was all a set up for a mockumentary... and it's one of the worst ones of all time. This is a pretentious, garbled, unfunny mess. The fiction is far less entertaining than what we thought was reality. He thought he was the next Andy Kaufman, as did many. But by the section of the film that featured the Letterman interview, I only wished that Jerry Lawler came out on to the stage and smacked Joaquin off of his chair. I'm a lover of all kinds of cinema, but I can't stand the self aggrandizement of the Hollywood celebrity. Some of these people just live in total fantasy.

Warning – this review contains major spoilers – please do not read on if you do not wish to made aware of a key aspect of the film.I find it hard to believe that this movie has not been rated more highly by both IMDb users and the critics of the time.I deliberately entitled this review The JP Method - it is one of the most well produced examples of method acting ever captured.Joaquin Phoenix inhabited an obnoxious caricature of himself for two years whilst making this movie both in public and in private. His performance was so good that he managed to fool many people into thinking that he was having a very public meltdown.Yes there were a few cast members that were made aware of the movie's intentions, but it would not have succeeded without these people.My rating is based more on this impressive, sustained piece of method acting than on the movie itself, as I believe it's a fairly unique achievement.The proof of success is that the only award the film received was a "Documentary" award from the Venice Film Festival. Surely that is the greatest recognition of this method acting that it fooled people who make a living within the movie industry.Even if you ignored my early warning and have not yet seen the movie, if you are interested in acting and cinema, I would still recommend that you watch. I myself was already aware of the facts behind the movie before I sat down for a viewing and possibly found it all the more fascinating as a result.I find it astonishing that a recognised actor would risk playing a part like this which required such real life public humiliation.

Huge trip of Casey Affleck and Joaquin Phoenix who decided to film in this mockumentary the fake career change of JP, from the movie set to the recording booths as an apprentice rapper.Now that everyone knows this was a hoax, the movie becomes pretty much pointless and will only be remembered for a few memorable scenes like the final rap at the nightclub and the fake fight that followed.Still, this movie should be seen at least once for the rather incredible performance of the actor who had to embody his role of a wannabe rapper for a year and a half on each public appearance which might have been his most difficult and greatest role to date.

I watched I'm Still Here last night. I think, on many levels, it is an almost brilliant satire film of the culture of celebrity, the gluttony of media, entitlement, idolatry, and social behavior. How quickly people celebrate the demise of someone; how they revel in the mental breakdown of someone especially when they don't understand what's happening. It shows how enamored people are with 'stars' and how even if treated harshly, or if something doesn't cut the mustard in their eyes, they are afraid of calling bullshit because they are 'programmed' to accept mediocrity in most things. There are a few missing components in this equation. Either through the fault of Casey or the people who interviewed JP, there was no mention or inquiry as to the music. Not one 'journalist' said, "Hey, this is a remarkable transition. We had no idea nor saw anything that hinted at your love of hip hop; give us an example.' Just as Eminem (and many others) freestyle'd in The Art of Rap on the drop of a dime, JP should have at least prepared something that would have made this even more convincing (even though it was a ploy!) The fact no one asked to see the goods was glaringly missing. Case in point. When Michael Jordan announced he was dropping basketball to play baseball, at least he showed everyone his 'game' to the media. Though that was for real, it also made it more plausible. I feel Casey missed an opportunity to really sell this and thus make it even more compelling. But I did enjoy this film! Kudos to JP for pulling this off. Maybe his best work other than The Master. And I think Casey Affleck has a wicked sense of humor in making this.