Review: I’m Still Here
Posted by Elliott Pen on September 10, 2010 · Leave a Comment
Casey Affleck’s “documentary” about brother-in-law Joaquin Phoenix has been marred by a haze of truth surrounding the actor’s alleged retirement from acting and slow-to-launch music career. Many believed that Affleck’s examination into the tortured actor would reveal the truth of the mystery.
Well, the truth is that Casey Affleck and Joaquin Phoenix might be the smartest men in Hollywood – role choices aside of course. While I’m Still Here is a self-serving piece of fun, and in turning the camera back onto Hollywood and its obsession with celebrity, it is in fact a character study many directors strive to reach their entire career. Considering that Phoenix’s career has had more misses than hits, Affleck coaxes the strongest performance out of Joaquin through the character of Joaquin Phoenix.
The events of Joaquin’s life are shown as a mixture of real (in which Joaquin maintains his character), and staged (such as uncomfortable meetings with producer Sean Combs about “J.P.”’s music career), which allow moments to unfold organically. The beauty of this study are the reactions from the unsuspecting, which in many instances turn out to be members of the media who believe every single word uttered.
But is I’m Still Here a good movie? Sadly it is not and cannot be regarded as a movie. As said before, it is a character study which riffs heavily off of what Sasha Baron Cohen has done for the last handful of years. What this film can serve as is a display of Joaquin Phoenix’s potential, or at the very least, an archetype for acting workshops and classes the world over. Sometimes the best character we can play is ourselves, and too often this is forgotten.
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