Review of I'm Still Here (2010) by Dan C — 03 Jan 2011

Will the real Joaquin Phoenix please stand up?

'I'm Still Here' is a very funny, very compelling documentary about the recent life/career/mental breakdown of actor/rapper/performance artist Joaquin Phoenix. I say documentary and not 'mockumentary,' the way that most people describe this movie, because, even though large parts of the film are most likely staged, and therefore fictional, as Jean-Luc Godard said, 'Every fiction film is a documentary of its actors.' The more fake it gets, the more the 'real' Joaquin is revealed. By the time he gets on stage for his first public hip hop performance, gets into a fight with someone? no one? and vomits into a toilet afterwards, we realize that we are seeing a man bleeding for us; a man who just doesn't give a fuck what you think of him; a man willing to put himself and his raging narcissism on display for the masses; a man who desperately wants to be heard and expressed, no matter what the cost. When an interviewer inquires about the fact that many people are calling this a 'hoax,' and he responds with, 'You people think my life is a fucking joke? This is my life!', his rage and hurt are palpable. Phoenix may have retired from acting, but he will never cease to be an 'artist.'.