BY MIKEY MIGO
Call it sacrilege, but I’ve never been a fan of Johnny Cash. I’ve heard plenty of his works to have an educated opinion, but to me he’s nothing more than two or three hits and then a lot of folklore. He has an interesting back story and a larger than life persona, but to me he’s pretty much a more Teamster, more gritty Elvis minus the hit catalog. I only bring that up because the main person we’re talking about today is famous for playing him in an Oscar winning movie. That said, I’ve never been a fan of Joaquin Phoenix either. I’ll even admit that I’ve called him “Jack-off Phoenix” on numerous occasions. It’s all playful though. I don’t wish the guy harm and he’s not a bad actor in the least bit. I’ve just never connected with anything he has done. The same can be said for “I’m Still Here”, a mockumentary made with Ben’s whisper-voiced little brother Casey Affleck. If you pay attention to pop culture you know what this about. A few years ago, Joaquin Phoenix announced his retirement from acting so he could pursue his dreams of being a rap singer. This lead to tons of gossip, appearances, and hoopla. It was pretty obvious from the start that it was all a ruse, but I was still interested. I’m all about the bizarre, off-kilter, and tongue-in-cheek. I love mockumentaries. They’re an underappreciated art. And then with the Andy Kaufman style play on the media and the fans? Yeah. I was down with it. It just didn’t last long enough and like most folk, I forgot about this stuff pretty quickly. I’m not saying they should have devoted more time to it because I know they all have careers to really focus on, but it felt kind of rushed in terms of timespan.The movie is on the boring side. The crazy and genuinely interesting stuff has already been seen. The rest feels like filler and set up. There are times things feel like Jackass without the stunts, but with double the cringes. Phoenix comes off like he’s doing an impression of Zack Galifianakis on heroine. He’s aloof, does drugs, parties, and whines a lot. There are some fun spots in it. I enjoyed Diddy participating. He seemed as if he was ready to give him a chance for real, but disappeared soon after. I’m assuming he got a whiff of being mocked so he took a step back. Other than that, it’s pretty much like I said… drugs and whining. It did nothing to make me like anyone more and the idea of it was more interesting than the execution. The highlight for me was the odd appearance of Edward James Olmos. He gives a great hype speech that almost makes no sense as it did a lot of sense. That makes no sense, but you have to see it to believe it. I’m open minded and if he continues to make movies I’m sure something will pique my interest. Until then, I’m going to be a respectful well wisher rather than a “fan”. If you were interested in this stuff when it was going down then I suppose watching it would be okay. It’s nothing great, but I respect the efforts in doing something against the grain. For that alone I say watch this, but with low expectations. C+
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