Film Review: I'm Still Here

REVIEW:
I'm Still Here
release date:September 10, 2010
our rating: 63%
reviewer: Aaron Schrank


“I don’t get it.”

These were the first words to fly out of my mouth after staggering out of the small screening room where I’d spent the last two hours attentively watching Casey Affleck and Joaquin Phoenix’s elusive mockumentary.

The film’s thematic exploration of celebrity culture, the unsettling interactions between fame, media chatter and public opinion, is no innovative endeavor. We’ve seen enough episodes of E!’s True Hollywood Story to know that chronicles of fame culture rarely have happy endings. The triumph of the I’m Still Here projectis not that it presents a new message, but that the message was tracked down and explored in such a fresh and dedicated way. It’s as if someone had completely orchestrated and documented the fall of Linsday Lohan, and then informed you that the entire spectacle was a piece of art.

Phoenix was courageous to lend his star persona to this project. Knowing now that the film— that the entire two-year stunt that played out in the media and in the minds of the masses—was a hoax, the audience can appreciate Phoenix’s work as a piece of performance art.

For those of us who watched Joaquin’s bearded, gum-chewing Letterman interview on YouTube a dozen times or searched for samples from his hip-hop album, the story told in I’m Still Here is tired, and its premiere only serves to close the curtain on the lengthy production that has played out for nearly two years.

So, what’s the point? The film was a box-office flop; anyone interested enough to see it would probably already know that Joaquin Phoenix appeared to have lost it. (grew an impressive beard, announced the end of his acting career, abused drugs, announced the beginning of his hip-hop career as “JP”, etc.) They would also already have seen how these developments played out in the media and public. And, honestly, the film serves little purpose (and might be quite boring) for 2010 audiences, because I’m Still Here is merely a memento of Affleck and Phoenix’s project, in which we were all characters.

Twenty years down the line, provided that Joaquin Phoenix continues to put his talent to good use, starring in numerous carefully-selected films, I’m Still Here will be appreciated in a new light. A true audience (those who did not experience the project as it played out) will be able to view and assess the film. Only then can the film serve its true function and its preservation of the legacy of the project prove worthwhile. I’m Still Here will one day be a feather in the cap of Joaquin Phoenix, the celebrated actor who laid his persona on the line to pull a legendary, provocative stunt halfway through his career.