Ostensible documentary on the post-acting career of Joaquin Phoenix by his brother-in-law and fledgling director Casey Affleck. One has to qualify it as “ostensible” because honestly it’s beyond belief. The mere existence of the film adds fuel to suspicions that the change of career from actor to rapper was but a stunt, a hoax. And for all the apparent candor and “realness” — the snorting of coke, the calling of call girls, the shitting in his sleeping face by a disgruntled hanger-on, the physical altercation with a heckler in concert and the subsequent hurling in the toilet — it can never escape those suspicions. Phoenix himself, mushy of mouth, spongy of body, looking like a street person whose bagful of possessions does not include comb or razor, gives a passable impression of a man unglued. But then again, he is, or he was, an actor, adept at creating impressions. And what kind of man, yowlingly tortured at the thought of not being taken seriously, opens himself in this way to being a joke-butt? And what kind of family member facilitates it? (With in-laws like this, who needs enemies?) Any portrait so unflattering — not warts and all, but all warts — can only be a lie. (2010) — Duncan Shepherd
This movie is not currently in theaters.