HOAX OR NOT A HOAX? >>>

I should start by talking about what people have been saying about Joaquin Phoenix ever since he grew that terrible beard and vowed to quit the acting game. People smelled a hoax - a giant put-on, all for the sake of a "documentary" that Phoenix's brother-in-law, Casey Affleck, was shooting - and they may have been right to do so. Having seen the film, I still cannot say whether or not it's a hoax.

However, regardless of Phoenix's motives, the things that he does to himself and his career over the course of I'm Still Here are vile, self-destructive and very real. If he felt it necessary to alienate himself from stardom in an attempt to lend realism to a mockumentary, then he succeeded in spades. That most people will forever believe he was faking it is, I guess, the last joke.

Read my full review of the film here.