Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.5

I'm Still Here Blu-ray Movie Review

Joaquin Phoenix is still here, but do we still care?

Reviewed by Casey Broadwater December 10, 2010

To preface my thoughts about I’m Still Here, let me give you a quote from the introduction to my June 2009 review of Two Lovers, the last film Joaquin Phoenix did before he “retired” from acting, grew a Hasidic lumberjack beard, and embarked on a laugh-out-loud-worthy hip hop career:

“Okay, Joaquin, the jig is up. You can ditch the sunglasses and take a razor to that beard. You hoodwinked Hollywood, point proved. Casey Affleck, you too, come on, put down the camcorder and confess. This actor turned rapper shtick is just a performance piece for a forthcoming mockumentary, right? You're challenging notions of celebrity and talent in an industry that loves a good downfall, and then, like a phoenix, you'll rise from the ashes of your acting career and have a good long laugh, correct? Well, alright, get to it. Your infamous turn on Letterman, to promote your final actor's gig, Two Lovers, fueled the gossip mill for a week or so, but it left the film—a good, quiet film—in the lurch, overshadowed by your Jim Morrison on smack appearance and gum-chewing antics. I have a feeling director James Grey was in on this—hoping it might spur interest in the film—but if not, I'm sure you've got some explaining to do. Just so you know, your performance in Two Lovers was superb, and we're all waiting for you to put your ample talents back to use.”

The question, now, post-I’m Still Here, is whether or not Joaquin Phoenix can or will put those talents to use again. And if he does, will anyone care?

I’m Still Here follows the actor’s much publicized descent into bearded madness that started in 2008, when he made the WTF red carpet announcement to Extra that he was leaving acting for good to focus on his hip hop career. We’re all familiar with the endlessly bandied about YouTube clips—Joaquin rapping incomprehensibly, falling offstage at a Miami club, and mumbling his way through an interview with an acrid David Letterman—but the film purports to show what was going on behind the scenes. In two nouns: delusion and squalor.

Phoenix—or JP, as he has his cadre of assistants and sycophants call him—seems genuinely convinced that he has what it takes to break into the rap scene. And no one will tell him otherwise. (When Phoenix explains to actor/rapper Mos Def that he’s going for a “hip hop Bohemian Rhapsody- type thing,” Mos—eyes wide, mouth gaping—just nods.) Much of the film is spent trailing JP as he tries to track down Sean “Puffy” Combs, intent on getting the rap mogul to produce his forthcoming record. P. Diddy is wary of JP’s motives, but when they finally meet, he gets down to brass tacks: money. “How much you need?” asks Joaquin. Diddy replies, “How much you got?” It’s an awkward tête-à-tête, but it gets even more painful when, months later, JP finally demos some of his unbelievably awful tracks. As Diddy listens to a cut called “Complimotherf---ingcation,” he stares off vacantly—one of the films few truly comic moments—before blurting out, “No, no, no. Not for you…You’re not ready to record with me. You’re not at that point yet.” The film is a chronicle of a man riding a cresting wave of self-delusion, and it finally breaks after that freakshow Letterman appearance. Leaving the city, he jumps out of his limo and climbs up an embankment into a tangle of trees. “I’m just going to be a goddamn joke forever,” he cries. “I’ve f---ed my life. Why’d I do that?”

Oh yeah, and the squalor, let’s not forget that. During this “year in the life of” portrait, we see JP grow from a trim, well-groomed Hollywood star into a shambling, hairy angst-monster. He porks up considerably. He smokes copious amounts of weed and snorts coke off a prostitute’s breast. He’s so trashed when he goes to D.C. for Barack Obama’s inauguration that his minders can’t wake him up in time to attend the event. There’s also just as much full-frontal male nudity here as there was in the wang-heavy Bruno, courtesy of one of JP’s friends, who parades around like a nude court jester. To top it off, we have a sub-plot involving an angry assistant—Antony Langdon, formerly of the brit-rock band Spacehog—which culminates with the peeved subordinate squatting over a sleeping JP, attempting to defecate on his face. It's comes of as contrived, which, of course, it is.

We all now know, definitively, that the whole thing—the beard, the weight gain, the drugs, the would-be rap career—was just an elaborate Andy Kaufman-esque practical joke at the expense of the media and celebrity-obsessed public-at-large, a piece of cynical performance art conceived by Phoenix (and directed by his brother-in-law Casey Affleck) as a way to prove that people will believe anything the Hollywood gossip mill churns out. Well, almost anything. From the start, bloggers and cultural pundits decried the rapidly disseminating story as a sham-in-the-making. I’m Still Here even works this disbelief into the plot, making the insiders who claim the sudden career change is a hoax into bad guys of a kind. It’s all very meta, using “real” events to construct a work of fiction, but unlike Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami’s brilliant Close-Up —which uses a similar thematic conceit—I’m Still Here has little to say and, worse, by its very nature, is condescending toward its hoodwinked audience. I’m curious, moving forward, to see if Joaquin, in making a mockumentary about destroying his career, might have actually destroyed his career. Or at least injured it. He’s certainly squandered the good will of his fans and the media. How will people respond to the next “normal” Joaquin Phoenix film?

But perhaps I’m being hard on him. Now that the beard is off—I’m hoping that will become the new “the cat is out of the bag”—and I’m Still Here can be seen for the ruse that it was, I can appreciate Phoenix’ method-acting willingness to put himself so fully into character— and that’s what JP is, a construction—that he would jeopardize his own esteem in the industry. I doubt he’ll see an Oscar nomination for his performance, but he really does sell JP's decline. It’s just too bad the film itself is so gimmicky and ironic that the title should have at least three pairs of quotations marks around it. (I’m still here. But am I? Psych, I am. Really, no really, I am. Gotcha!) The ultimate irony, though, is that no one said no to the celebrities who wanted to make a film about no one saying no to a celebrity. Maybe someone should’ve.

I'm Still Here Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

I'm Still Here was shot using a spectrum of digital video cameras—from cheapo off-the-shelf standard definition consumer camcorders to high(er) end HD models—so it's nearly impossible to judge the film's picture quality by any absolute standards. (The film even begins with clips from a 30-year-old VHS tape.) What I can do is comment on what the material looks like and speculate on whether or not the film's 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer presents a faithful depiction of the varied material—warts and all. The bulk of the faux-umentary footage is in high definition, and it looks okay, if not exactly strong. Fine detail is usually visible, color is natural—that is, not stylized or oversaturated—and black levels are as deep as can be expected. Obviously, since the film was shot on location with natural lighting, the degree of noise in the image varies with the level of ambient light. Noise is barely visible in the daytime sequences, while nighttime scenes and dim interiors sometimes have a chunky, murky quality. (It's commendable, and should be noted, that there has been no attempt to artificially smear away excess grain with DNR.) Footage from standard definition sources is understandably softer, but given the technological limitations, I doubt it could look any better. The encode itself is solid, with no excess compression issues. Basically, it is what it is.

I'm Still Here Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The same can be said for the film's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track, which is also cobbled together from a variety of sources, from professional sync gear to the crackle-prone built-in mics on the aforementioned cheapo consumer camcorders. The sound quality really is all over the place. Sometimes the "dialogue"—if you want to call it that—is clean and easily comprehensible. Other times, it's a muffled, indistinct mess. Personally, I found it helpful to keep the subtitles turned on. Music is occasionally added to underscore the ongoing drama, and in general it sounds good, with plenty of clarity and range. The subwoofer channel even gets a few opportunities to bark during bass-heavy club scenes. That said, the sound design absolutely squanders the rear speakers, which, disappointingly, are rarely ever used. I wasn't expecting Saving Private Ryan or anything, but a little bit of ambience panned into the rears wouldn't hurt.

I'm Still Here Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentaries: There are two tracks here, one a solo affair with director Casey Affleck, and the other a cobbled-together assortment of voices with input from Affleck, Joaquin Phoenix, Nicole Acacio, Larry McHale, Antony Langdon, Johnny Moreno, Eddie Rouse, Matt Maher, Eliot Gaynon, and Sue Patricola. Neither track is particularly engaging, and in Affleck's solo commentary, he mumbles just as much as Joaquin on Letterman.
• Alternative Ending Outtakes (SD, 6:47): An alternate take of the final sequence, with optional commentary by Casey Affleck.
• Audio Conversation with Jerry Penacoli ("Extra"), Casey Affleck, and Joaquin Phoenix (10:32): Affleck and Phoenix discuss the whole sham with Penacoli, the first guy to break the false news of Phoenix's retirement.
• Audio Conversation with Christine Spines (Journalism Professor), Casey Affleck, and Joaquin Phoenix (27:20): Spines talks in-depth about the conflicts between journalistic integrity and her interest in the hoax.
• Jerry Pencacoli Interview with Joaquin Phoenix (1080p, 6:11): Here, Phoenix talks candidly about the process and experience of making the film.
• Also from Magnolia Home Entertainment Blu-ray (1080p, 11:12): Includes trailers for Centurion, Monsters, The Extra Man, Freakonomics, and Countdown to Zero, along with a promo for HDNet.

I'm Still Here Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Would I'm Still Here be better if it wasn't a put on, if it followed a real decline into delusion and self-destruction? It would certainly be sadder. As it stands, the mockumentary seems merely self-indulgent. The next logical step would've been for Phoenix to fake his death and then throw a huge funeral so he could hide and listen to all the eulogies. Only time will tell whether or not I'm Still Here constitutes actual career suicide, but I imagine Phoenix will be back to work sooner rather than later. Some new celebrity downward spiral will emerge and we'll all move on. And so it goes. I'm Still Here is worth watching once—as a kind of cultural document—but it's instantly forgettable.