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| The artsy poster for Casey Affleck's I'm Still Here |
On the top of his successful career as an Oscar-nominated actor, Joaquin Phoenix (Walk the Line (2005)) has grown so tired of the showbiz rat race that he gets off the gravy train to pursue a very public free-fall as a rapper.
I'm Still Here presents an overly self-indulgent and pathetic portrait of a man's downfall, which turns out to be a hoax; scripted, conceptualized and staged for the most part, although that fact doesn't really make much of a difference. Co-writer-director Casey Affleck (The Book of Charles (1999)) and co-writer Phoenix are the ones to blame for this boring, pointless midlife-crisis serving. It is Phoenix's good luck that he is a recognized, great actor, because otherwise this film could have easily become his professional gravestone.
Ben Stiller (Greenberg (2010)) and particularly David Letterman (Late Show with David Letterman (1993-2015)) give this botch-up its only funny scenes, both unaware that they are involved in a hoax. If you feel different than me towards I'm Still Here, then watch, for instance, Asif Kapadia's Oscar-winning documentary masterpiece Amy (2015) and compare the two. The hollowness of this expletive-heavy, tiring film should become glaringly obvious.
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Affleck talks of the film in the video here
Cost: Unknown
Box office: 568k $
= Unknown (but likely a huge flop)
[I'm Still Here premiered September 6 (Venice International Film Festival) and runs 106 minutes. Filming began January 2009 and ran the following year, taking place in Costa Rica, Vegas, LA and other places around the US, inspired by the relationship between reality TV, celebrities and the public. I'm Still Here opened #43 in 19 theaters to a 96k $ first weekend in North America, where it peaked in 120 theaters and grossed 408k $ (71.8 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 98k $ (17.3 %) and Australia with 33k $ (5.8 %). Affleck claims that the film made him go broke, and if its cost is put at a tentative 1 mil. $, the film was a huge flop. The single company behind it has also not produced anything else. I'm Still Here is rotten at 53 % with a 5.5 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of I'm Still Here?
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