Thankfully He IS Still Here

Born October 28th 1974...Joaquin Phoenix is a man my own age and is an actor of passion, intrigue and has a great sense of humor...so much so that he made I'm Still Here...part mockumentary like Spinal Tap, part real life scenario like Borat, part Dada-style like Andy Kaufman...this film captures the turmoil, sadness and funny as all reality shows as Casey Affleck and best friend Joaquin Phoenix can fit into a film that took them 2 years to make. My guess is the actor thought...I need a break let me just hang with my friends and play my self for 2 years...this is where the idea of a Being John Malkovich comes in...While shooting Malkovich the actor told Spike Jonze that a certain scene was being written wrong and so he "acted" like himself....Spike Jonze said "NO...John Malkovich would never do it that way"...what balls on Spike Jonze?...no...it's how we as the audience have preconceived notions of a pretentious full of himself actor like Malkovich MUST be like...who cares if he is a real person with a spectrum of emotions and his own true ideas...we want to see what WE "think" is John Malkovich...the same is with Joaquin...in the first scene he could be serious when he says that he is "tired of playing the role of Joaquin Phoenix"...this could have very well have been at the end of this documentary and he is honestly saying that he is tired of playing the role for the fake documentary...he is tired of people thinking it's a joke when it really is a joke...the joke has gone on too long and its time for him to being his true self with all the range of emotions that a real person has...not just the crazed, drug induced, hip hop loving, Jim Morrison lookin, fat Joaquin Phoenix...

What has he been in?...I mean I can name off the top of my head:

1. I'm Still Here

2. Gladiator

3. To Die For (Gus van Sant...right?)

4. Two Lovers (only because it's prominent in I'm Still Here)

5. Reservation Road? (because he complains about its similarity to Revolution Road with DiCaprio in I'm Still Here

6. Walk the Line

What else?....we know him for being the brother of now Indie Icon River Phoenix...

This film also has great scenes with Ben Stiller, Edward James Olmos, and great scenes with Sean Combs...who Joaquin calls, Puffy, Sean, Combs, Puff Daddy, Diddy...and they are all at the wrong time

This is a funny funny film..and I have no idea how anyone would mistake this for "REAL"...except that Joaquin is playing himself...the scenarios are clearly set ups, but done very well and they must have had a great time trying to get it all right...they must have shot tons of takes, cause it is edited like a crazy hack job...just like all those mockumentaries are

I said this was one of my most anticipated films of the year and it went beyond my expectations...this may be better then Inception...Inception was not as "dream like" as I hoped...and I'm Still Here was funnier and less tragic then I thought.

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