At a packed screening room at the offices of William Morris Endeavor last week, buyers from Hollywood’s indie distribution companies were on hand to watch Casey Affleck’s documentary I’m Still Here: The Lost Year of Joaquin Phoenix. Affleck is married to Phoenix’s sister, Summer, and now that distributors have seen Affleck’s depiction of his brother-in-law’s strange year of existence, the verdict is still unclear whether Phoenix’s attempt to make it as a rapper is an elaborate piece of performance art or a sad retelling of an actor’s life unraveling. As one viewer told EW.com, “there’s a lot of people who’ve now seen it and are still asking if it’s a hoax or not. Whoever buys it will know, but they aren’t telling anyone ahead of time.”
The film shows Phoenix snorting cocaine, having sex with prostitutes and simply falling apart in his quest to land a record deal. It shows him meeting with Sean Combs in a desperate plea to get him to produce his record album. Phoenix also meets with Ben Stiller who’s trying to persuade the Gladiator star to join his indie film Greenberg, despite Phoenix’s protest that he’s no longer acting. Word is that a few distributors are interested in buying the film, guessing that the question of whether or not Phoenix is playing with us all will be enough to draw audiences into theaters.
I’ll be honest, I’m interested in this.
It sounds quite interesting. But if he is in fact snorting cocaine, wouldn’t that be prove of a crime he committed and therefore land him some jail time? I was also under the impression that prostitution is illegal in most of America. I LOVE the man to be quite honest. It’s dissapointing to see him do such a thing.
Rosalie you are such a SQUARE. Next thing you know she will be calling the cops because some kids are doing graffiti. SQUARE POLICE!
If it’s filmed the prostitution could be argued as merely pornography and protected by California law. Also, just like when you see rappers smoking weed in music videos, how exactly would they prove the drugs in the film are real and not the fake stuff they use in any fictional film?
Rosalie- You are correct that snorting coke and using prostitutes are both crimes. But the problem you have in getting a conviction is determining where those acts took place, and I’m betting they aren’t saying.
Really, Moe? Square?
Using the term, “square,” is square.
If you’d have said that Rosalie was, “wiggedy-wiggedy wack,” that would have been totally tubular.
Man, I use to think I was voluptous. Guess what I saw as curves are straight lines that form 90 degrees angles. Anyhow, the point is that if all this was caught on tape by his brother in law, and his brother in law is saying that he was doing thins things, his brother in law is a witness to Joaquin’s criminal actions. Don’t worry, I know he can get away with it because most people with money usually do.
I would call the cops if I saw kids doing grafitti, that’s asomebody’s property butthead, that doesn’t make you the squarepolice. You must be some kid who doesn’t own property and therefore doesn’t understand. But this movie looks stupid and I do think it’s all some performance art piece, which does not make it not lame.
Doing coke is not a crime; possessing it or selling it is.
I’m laughing at Moe. He/she could have said something really rude instead came out really funny!
NARC!!!!!
really? tell that to all the people who had relatives actually murdered by people with NO money who got away with it. As in murder as in a real crime not just morality police.
Since when is it wrong to film something that is against the law? There outta be more reasons than just that. That alone, is a dumb reason to try to charge or convict anyone.
And yes, cocaine is a bad drug, so hopefully Phoenix will switch to pot as he settles down.
A movie is a product like toothpaste and sham-wow. To get people to buy it you need a hook. Showing Phoenix as a lunatic in a movie Affleck is pimping to movie execs with the cynical smirk that it “may or may not” be a hoax is all just part of the game.
It just makes them both look like aholes. Casey will arguably get the better career move from this (which I am sure he knows). I’m sure Joaquin will either continue desperate attempts at being funny and cool, or stage a “comeback” where he smarmingly looks back on this as a youthful folly while accepting Jay Lenos a$$ kissing for his latest movie role.
I want to see this…but it is so clearly fake……After what his late brother went through, after what he experienced what Johnny Cash went through in Walk the Line, can anyone honestly believe he would let himself spin out of control, and have it filmed? And wouldn’t that also make all of his family, including Affleck, the worst family in the world for not stepping in…..
i dont know if it’s real or fake, but, regarding your thought process: are you serious?? you think what happened to his brother is going to change how he acts now? yeah..bc people who have seen close friends/family die of lung cancer NEVER smoke. and you think it’s so easy to just step in and stop someone from engaging in self-destructive behavior? and you think hollywood is above exploiting family members for money? how naive.
david, you apparently are a genius around these parts. he must be a big fan of andy kaufman!
anl – there is one thing for stepping in, there is another thing for filming a loved one’s destructive slide. I really believe Phoenix is a fan of Kaufman, and that he really wanted to challenge himself as an actor, doing something he may not be able to 5, 10 years from now.
You are far too cynical anl – until otherwise, I think this project is part acting-challenge-of-lifetime, part show-dangers-of-drug-abuse, something he witnessed first-hand making the 911 call the night his brother died.
i had the same thought. would joaquin’s sister stand by and let her husband film her brothers breakdown? doesn’t seem likely. he’s my favorite actor (or was)so i hope it’s not really his life, would be a sad waste.
If he’s married to his sister but the movie shows him having sex with prostitutes… then I’m going to take a leap and assume this is just a really elaborate method acting experiment gone awry. I don’t really see any normal person standing by and filming their brother-in-law cheating on his sister. But maybe I’m just old-fashioned.
Casey Affleck is married to Joaquin Phoenix’s sister and is filming Joaquin. Joaquin is the one with prostitutes not Casey.
re: CManning – Casey is married to Joaquin’s sister, not the other way around. Joaquin wasn’t cheating on anyone.
Affleck is married to Phoenix`s sister. not the other way around.
Joaquin is single (as far as it´s known), his sister is married to Affleck.
And I think it´s a hoax and then neither cocain and hooker are for real.
Even though CManning was a little confused for a bit I agree that Casy still would not be filming his wife’s brother like this if it wasn’t all an act.
Ahhh, my bad
Maybe he really is crazy then.
Um i thought it was common knowledge that it all was a big joke. I’m pretty sure they have since talked about it
It has to be a joke.
Agree…waste of time on a guy who was at one time good to watch in a movie.
Whether it’s a hoax or not, it’s stupid. I used to like Joaquin Phoenix, but now I just think he’s a moron.
If this is a joke then it is disgusting. Mental illness is something that is taken very lightly in this country and to have it paraded around for amusement, and financial gain, is appalling.
I don’t think it’s mental illness that they’re depicting–it just sounds like your run-of-the mill delusions of grandeur that many an actor in hollywood has
Yeah, no one’s ever profitted off of a movie about mental illness before.
Yes, I thought word was out that it was all a hoax ala Borat.
Is J. Phoenix trying to be this generation’s Andy Kaufman? Epic fail dude. There’s only one, and he’s dead. (Or is he?)
Who cares? He’s just faker than that plastic freak from the Hills.
How could a brother watch his sister’s husband do such things and then produce it for the world to see?
because he is not married to his sister?
Uhhhh, yeah he is. It says it right in the article you’re commenting on.
Wow, as stated above…. the person behind the camera (Casey Afleck) is married to Phoenix’s sister, Summer… and the person on camera (Phoenix…) is having sex with prostitutes… Read AND comprehend… makes such a difference!
CASEY AFFLECK is married to Juaquin’s sister Summer. Juaquin is not married to Summer. They are brother and sister (repeated for clarity!) Therefore, Affleck was recording his WIFE’S brother Juaquin with the prostitutes. Casey was not the one with the prostitutes. He did not cheat on his wife, SUMMER, Juaquin’s sister (who is not married to Juaquin, her brother!) Geez, I hope that clears this up!
LMFAO. Wooh that made my day! there are sure some dumbasses on here, no?
it’s been known from the get go that this was performance art and a sham. i’d be more interested if it wasn’t such an outword attempt at deceit.
Fake or real, I’d fork over 10 bucks to see this.
that’s because you’re an idiot.
I agree – what a fool.
you guys are both tools. I’m with lou on this one, we see movies because they intrigue us, whether or not the whole thing is fake doesn’t matter, they’re doing something different and yeah it might be stupid but it sounds entertaining. if you guys think this is an idiotic and foolish project what do you think of guys who post on the comments section of a story like this? pure genius
it’s a hoax for sure.
So, let me get this right! Joaquin is married to his sister????? That ain’t right!!!!!
No, you “confused” idiot. Casey Affleck married his own sister Summer and their father is Joaquin Phoenix. Gosh, some people are so stupid!
LOL
That’s right, Joaquin is married to Juaquin and they’ve fathered Casey Affleck’s brother, Ben who is married to an actress to was married to Scot Foley who is a friend of a friend of Joaquin. And probably knows this is a hoax–I’m guessing.
Beardy, you made me laugh so hard I cried. Thanks!
Marry meeeeeeeeee! <3
Joaquin is his own grandpa.
Ehhh, who cares.
If he’s doing some lame performance art, then he has to be saying something, or trying to get a message across. If he’s doing this just to see if he can do it, or to try and be funny, well there’s no real message there. There’s no conflict. Just some rich dude trying to cross genres. Someone just tell me how it ends.
I hope Phoenix does not come out of the closet. If so it will totally ruin this movie for me.
Sorry to ruin it for you but he announces he’s gay while having snorting a line of coke off the back of a female prositute he’s having sex with as he performs his own rendition of M.C. Hammer’s “Hammer Time.”
*Spoiler Alert* Not only does he come out, he also marries his sister, who is also Casey Affleck’s sister, and a prostitute. Later Joaquin reveals that he is, in fact, Justin Bieber.
WTF? “yep.” you are an idiot. Maybe some of us wanted to see the film for ourselves? Enough with the spoilers I HATE WHEN PEOPLE DO THAT!
You don’t actually think “Yep.” is serious, right?