14 DAY TRIAL // Fans hoped this year’s Venice Film Festival would bring some answers as to Joaquin Phoenix and Casey Affleck’s past year or so, with the premiere of their film / documentary / mockumentary / hoax, “I’m Still Here.”
It didn’t but, as ScreenCrave informs, it brought only excellent reviews, even if critics and audiences alike continue to be confounded by it.
In January last year, Joaquin Phoenix announced he’d retire from acting because he wanted to pursue a career as a rapper – from thereon, things only evolved from bad to worse for him.
While this was going on, Casey Affleck was always nearby with a camera ready, shooting every move that the actor turned rapper made. The result is “I’m Still Here.”
During the press call at Venice, Affleck insisted that “I’m Still Here” was not a hoax, while also making sure he still kept his statements in vague terms, enough to keep people guessing.
Regardless of whether it’s a mockumentary, a documentary or a big fat hoax, the film is a superb and twisted take on modern celebrity culture, a disturbing look behind the curtains and, at the same time, an experiment like no other conducted in the movie industry, critics say.
“If it is a hoax, Phoenix is giving one of the greatest method performances of all time. Like its central character, the film is infuriating and provocative by turns. The ridicule that is heaped on him arguably reveals just as much about celebrity-obsessed popular culture as it does about Phoenix himself,” The Independent writes.
This is not to say that Affleck’s work as director is in any way overshadowed by Phoenix’s amazing performance, the same review argues.
The way he handles the camera and covers all angles, and the manner in which he edited the shots speak of a true genius who knew from the start what he was doing.
Variety points out that this ongoing controversy around the project does nothing in terms of weakening its impact on audiences.
“Result is an utterly fascinating experiment that apparently blends real and faked material to examine notions of celebrity, mental stability and friendship,” the publication says.
“Whatever auds may think of Phoenix, there’s no doubting his chutzpah, though biz will depend on the level of voyeuristic interest in his and co-helmer Casey Affleck’s strange, postmodern psychodrama,” adds Variety.
If “I’m Still Here” is a mockumentary that drew for inspiration on Sacha Baron Cohen’s controversial “Borat” and “Bruno,” it also manages to take the genre one step further, into the realm where tragic and troubling things happen, says the same review.
“I’m Still Here” is out in theaters on September 10, 2010. Below is the official trailer for it, make sure you check it out and see whether this is something you want to pay money for.