Review of I'm Still Here (2010) by Derek D — 05 Jan 2011

I'm not sure what the point was in making this film or what Phoenix and Affleck were trying to accomplish, but this film is completely pointless. It's bascically "Jackass" without the stunts, and honestly that would have made a more proper title.

Watching overpaid celebrities make complete fools of themselves just for the sake of art just doesn't resonate with me, and "Borat" and "Bruno" are prime examples. Watching Phoenix, who is a great actor make a complete ass of himself all so that you can feel sorry for him that it's tough to be famous.

I'm sorry but maybe I just don't get it. It feels like some kinda inside joke between Phoenix and his brother-in-law Casey Affleck, that only they find funny and expect us to as well. And honestly I don't see the gain in making a film like this because since doing it Phoenix has nothing as far as movies go coming out, and nothing in the near future to work on.

Seems like this was a bad career choice. If I want to see a film about people being dumb and losing all since of reality, I can go buy a video camera and roundup a bunch of friends and do better than this.

And yes, watching Phoenix go complete bat-shit crazy was kinda cool, but honestly, how hard is it to play a crazy version of yourself? Another problem, is that the whole thing was a hoax and you can tell that pretty early on.

Maybe if I had seen this before we all knew it was a hoax I'd have a little bit of a different opinion, but honestly this film just really isn't worth seeing. Here's to hoping that Joaquin Phoenix can return to form like what we saw in "Walk the Line.

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