Skip to main content

The Two Sides of I'm Still Here: Probably the worst movie of 2010


In a shock heard around the entertainment world in October 2008, Joaquin Phoenix announced his retirement from the acting world, brother-in-law Casey Affleck was there filming it all as he attempted to transition into a career in hip-hop which ultimately turned into a documentary about a star and his nervous breakdown which lasted nearly a year. In September 2010 upon the film’s release we find out what we had all suspected that it was all bullshit.

One could make the argument that this was a masterstroke in filmmaking, working the 24 hour news cycle in the media and the very Hollywood system itself in believing this farce and turning into a cunning social comment on the very system that Phoenix and Affleck make a living on…or it was just a couple of assholes running around doing whatever the hell they wanted. 2 talented actors got bored, got high and wanted to make their own version of Borat, Bruno etc, and is usually the case it was only funny in small doses.

There incessant insider references about the Hollywood would befuddle someone who works in that industry (it did for me) and the whole project came off like a vanity jerk off session, spitting in the face of an industry that made them. A 5-10 minute skit of Phoenix’s meta-satire riffs could have been funny, hell that’s what “Funny or Die” is for, but it just got stretched way too far.
I hope…no I pray that what passes for a mockumentary these days gets a serious upgrade, because this type of movie runs the risk of committing the worst crime in art, it’ll get played out and boring.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Perhaps the most brilliant and disturbing movie I've ever seen...

Danish director Lars Von Trier, has done some pretty weird and emotionally evocative stuff over the years, The Kingdom mini-series, Breaking The Waves, Dancer In The Dark, Europa, Dogville et others, but his latest quite simply tops them all. Antichrist debuted at Cannes in 2009, with critical acclaim but also with some shock and awe due to it's explicit sexuality and moments of graphic violence. I wont bore any of you with a plot summary that can easily be found elsewhere(or in the trailer link below), but I am compelled to tell you, the avid readers of this blog that I have never found a piece of film so compelling, yet so uncomfortable to watch all at the same time. This is why films(dare I say art) is made to challenge, to provoke, to spark any and all kind of observations and discussion about what ever we please. You might not like this film once you watch it, but I guarantee you will talk about it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw03QayJ2fU Cheers, DRV
Post a Comment
Read more

Time To Rant About The Best Show You're Not Watching...

Yes, this is me Dave Voigt updating my long neglected blog. I am trying to get over the mental block that every blog post needs to be an epic and insightful and just get out of my own head and rant. Writing on Examiner.com doesn’t always allow for that, and as I sit here watching episodes of my favorite television show on Netflix for the umpteenth time it dawns on me. Just because I’m watching it, doesn’t necessarily mean you are. It’s time to enroll at Greendale for the antics of the gang at Community. Community centers on Jeff Winger (Joel McHale), a disbarred lawyer going to school for the first time after his bachelor's degree is revealed as fabricated. The series focuses on the experiences of Jeff and the study group he accidentally forms while pursuing Britta Perry (Gillian Jacobs), a student trying to get her life back on track. The other members of Jeff's study group include Pierce Hawthorne (Chevy Chase), a millionaire on a late in life voyage of self discovery; An...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Golden Globes: I'm done...

It was the 68th Annual Golden Globes tonight, and as a general rule these awards tend to be the main barometer for the Oscars when it comes to handing out the film awards for that year. Nobody undeserving won, but when it comes down to it, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is more or less a joke...and every celebrity in that room knows it. It's a party thrown for the Brangelina's of the world where they basically get paid to show up, eat and drink and catch up with one another and pat each other on the back for making movies. It's a roast hosted by a man who has enought money that he simply doesn't care about the system, and will make fun of it while they pay him. I love the arts, I always have and I always will but this is basically a televised party, and it's gotten boring. We as indviduals don't go to the same party all the time, you've got to mix it up and it would be nice if the HFSP would start to take this as seriously as the bulk of the view...
Post a Comment
Read more