I'm Still Here

So I saw I'm Still Here last night, the Joaquin Phoenix 'mockumentary' directed by his brother-in-law Casey Affleck. Clearly, these two have spent a great deal of time staging this thing perfectly, including Joaquin's unforgettable Letterman appearance and his night of 'rapping' in Miami in 2009. At the time, I thought Joaquin, or 'JP' as he refers to himself in the film, was trying to be the next Harmony Korine, that enfant terrible responsible for what I believe are the two finest Letterman performances one could imagine (youtube them now if you haven't seen them). But it turns out Joaquin is no Harmony. He's also no rapper, and because the film is so outlandish, you also don't really believe Joaquin is truly an actor descending into a spiral of debauchery on film.

Joaquin can act, and I believe he does a damn fine job of playing a drug-addled, overweight obnoxious Hollywood prick. But if he is simply acting the part, you wonder what prompted him and Affleck to come up with such a shtick? Is this Joaquin impersonating Robert Downey Jnr? Or Britney Spears? Or Lindsay Lohan? But WHY?! My guess is that the guy wanted a vehicle to showcase his comedic talents, because the humour is the only thing that saves I'm Still Here from being oh so terribly boring. The film seems to drag on for an eternity, and many points are just too heavily laboured; we get that he is desperate to meet P Diddy, or 'Puffy' as he calls him, but do we really need to watch his assistants make a million inane calls to Puffy's assistants? A few scenes, where Joaquin salivates as he orders prostitutes online or vomits for an awfully long time, are absolutely cringe worthy (no actor who actually behaves like this would allow anyone to make a documentary about their vile behaviour, surely). 

However, in other parts, I'm Still Here is extremely funny. The sight of one of his badgered 'assistants' retaliating to a barrage of insults by defecating on Joaquin's sleeping face is hilarious. A cameo from Ben Stiller is equally amusing, and so are the scenes with Puffy listening to JP's 'album.' Joaquin's performance in a Miami nightclub, where he raps 'I'm Still Here' and rhymes Joaquin with spleen, is also great.

Joaquin Phoenix will no doubt appear onscreen in a Hollywood film again soon enough, and there is sure to be the accompanying press heralding his 'return to form.' Joaquin has given the media what everyone loves to see - just another drug-addled star destroying themselves in a very public manner. With this much hype, Phoenix and Affleck will certainly make a profit from their comedic undertaking. I suspect Joaquin Phoenix has been 'here' all along.