I’m Still Here

Did anyone actually ask for a whole movie about the Joaquin Phoenix meltdown? Well, here it is, from Phoenix’s brother-in-law Casey Affleck, in his directorial debut. As a record of a catastrophic spacing out, I’m Still Here is approximately as numbing as one of those NASA special reports that comes out a year after a shuttle disaster, and almost as fun. And with the question of its fakeness long ago mooted, it’s also the monstrously cynical epitome of a publicity stunt: a sort of suck-on-this offering to the parasitic media class that taunts celebrities into self-abasement. In lieu of actually probing Phoenix’s awkward withdrawal from film acting and his subsequent, more awkward foray into hip-hop, the film merely perpetuates the one-note performance of his suffering. Lost year, indeed.