Joaquin Phoenix’s Weird Rapper Movie Gets A Street Date
The train wreck that has become Joaquin Phoenix’s life over the past couple of years will finally be able to seen. Magnolia Pictures has completed a deal for the rights to I’M STILL HERE: THE LOST YEAR OF JOAQUIN PHOENIX, a possible mockumentary centered around Phoenix’s choice to retire as an actor and move into a new career as a rap artist.
Deadline Hollywood reports that the film will receive a platform release on September 10, with a wide release planned for the week following. Apparently, most studios walked away from the film, unsure if I’M STILL HERE was some sort of put-on or just a legitimately fucked-up look at this lost year of Joaquin Phoenix’s life.
Magnolia President Eamonn Bowles claims, “It is going to get a lot of attention, but it is not some cheap stunt where they said, ‘Let’s do some wild stuff and film it.’ It is extreme behavior but really good filmmaking as well. Frankly, some of the behavior is very extreme. But it is in the context of the insanity of being in Joaquin’s life for that period of time. It is a unique piece of work that is going to surprise people in different ways.”
Hmmm… do I want to watch the NASCAR-style events of Joaquin Phoenix, hoping for a spectacular crash, complete with cocaine-snorting off a hooker’s tits and Cleveland Steamers…?
**crickets chirping**
What…? I’m still trying to decide.
Part of this feels very reality TV-based, in that it’s not at all real, yet further displays people’s fascination with watching the lowest form of entertainment, and the joke is on the viewer. The other part just feels like this could be one of the craziest films ever seen, because it literally is watching a once-talented actor destroy his life right in front of our very eyes. Then there’s one smaller fraction of a part that feels like a mixture of both.
Then again, I never liked Joaquin Phoenix, so I might be down to see this… maybe.
