I'm Still Here (2010) or, Joaquin Phoenix's Bad Joke

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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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2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

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?

Greenberg (2010) - Baumbach's uniquely downbeat LA-romance depressant

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+ Best Los Angeles Movie of the Year

Ben Stiller gets a change of pace as Noah Baumbach's Greenberg

Roger Greenberg is in a curious phase in his life while house-sitting for his brother's family in Hollywood and looking after their dog Mahler: Following a nervous breakdown, he attempts to do nothing.

Greenberg is the 6th feature from great New Yorker writer-director Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale (2005)). He developed the story for the film with Jennifer Jason Leigh (The Anniversary Party (2001)), who also stars in it.
The film inspires quite a few laughs; it has some neat scenes and good lines, but it is also incredibly depressing. And unromantic. It works out a space for itself of a kind of hideous realism that's quite rare, which is fascinating but may also be hard to really like.

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2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

Noah Baumbach directing Ben Stiller in his Greenberg

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 25 mil. $
Box office: 6.1 mil. $
= Mega-flop
[Greenberg premiered February 14 (Berlin International Film Festival) and runs 107 minutes. It was shot in and around March 2009. Ben Stiller contracted Joaquin Phoenix to play the part of Ivan, the part ultimately played by Rhys Ifans, recorded in Casey Affleck and Phoenix's weird-awful documentary I'm Still Here. The film opened in just 3 theaters to a 118k $ opening weekend (a strong 39k $ screen average), but peaking in just 186 theaters in North America, where it grossed 4.2 mil. $ (68. % of the total gross). Its 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Russia and the UK, both with 0.4 mil. $ (6.6 %). The film's terrible performance was made catastrophic by the fact that the film was made on an overly high budget. Roger Ebert awarded the film 3½ stars, equal to 5 hearts here. It was shown in competition in Berlin and was nominated for 4 Independent Spirit awards. Greenberg is certified fresh at 75 % with a 6.7 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Greenberg?

Everything Must Go (2010) - Rush and Ferrell's great Carver adaptation

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2 Film Excess nominations:

Best Screenplay: Dan Rush (lost to Christopher Nolan for Inception)
Best Lead Actor: Will Ferrell, also for Megamind (lost to Stephen Dorff for Somewhere)
 
+ Best Adaptation of the Year

Will Ferrell does look a little lost on this poster for Dan Rush's Everything Must Go

Will Ferrell (Stranger than Fiction (2006))  plays a man who loses his job, his wife and his car and deals with these defeats by deciding to move out onto his front lawn and start drinking.

Everything Must Go is a Raymond Carver (Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? (1976)) adaptation, based on his short story Why Don't You Dance? (1978), written and directed by Dan Rush as his first and only credit to date. It has just the needed shot of comedy in the shape of Ferrell and some extra warmth in Rush's script, which Carver's story is likely to have be missing.
Ferrell is eminent in the for him rare, more dramatic part, and Rebecca Hall (The Gift (2015)) and Laura Dern (When the Game Stands Tall (2014)) are both good in supporting parts. Everything Must Go is a nice dramedy and a fine film SPOILER with a hopeful ending that is decidedly un-Carveresque.

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2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 5 mil. $
Box office: 2.7 mil. $ (North America only)
= Unknown (looks like a huge flop)
[Everything Must Go premiered September 10 (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 97 minutes. Rush's script was featured on the 2008 Blacklist, an online list of the most liked unproduced scripts around. Filming took place in Arizona. The film was only released in half a dozen countries. It opened #15 with 0.7 mil. $ in North America, where it peaked in just 245 theaters. It made under 100k $ in each three of its foreign  markets (South Africa, Brazil and the UK), which are reported. Regrettably, poor distribution and audiences bailing on Ferrell in an attempt at a more serious film seem to have killed the film theatrically. Everything Must Go is certified fresh at 75 % with a 6.7 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Everything Must Go?

Friends with Money (2006) - Holofcener's poignant midlife-crisis dramedy

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+ Best Dramedy of the Year

The four great actresses top this simple poster for Nicole Holofcener's Friends with Money

Friends with Money is the third feature by great New Yorker writer-director Nicole Holofcener (Enough Said (2013)).

Olivia is the black sheep in her group of friends, who have all three married and become wealthy. She is single, lonely and works as a maid. But as it turns out, she is not the only one of them who has problems.

Holofcener has established herself as a strong chronicler of modern American urbanite lives and issues, and her intelligent and warm, sardonic humor shines through in Friends, which is filled with solely realistic characters.
They, - especially the ones around Olivia, who have "made it" and are off-puttingly aware of this at times, - are sometimes unsympathetic, but through the efforts of a great cast, we still never have enough of them:
Jennifer Aniston (Cake (2014)) proves her weight as a fine dramatic actress, and Catherine Keener (Into the Wild (2007)) and Jason Isaacs (Good (20008)) share especially one piercingly written and played scene SPOILER as a man and wife whose marriage has really hit the rocks. Frances McDormand (Olive Kitteridge (2014), TV-miniseries) and Simon McBurney (Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015)) are also great as a married couple who are pulled in each their own problematic directions as well, and particularly McDormand shines as a menopausal woman with an anger problem.

Simon McBurney and Jennifer Aniston in Nicole Holofcener's Friends with Money

The details:

The score is composed by the great Rickie Lee Jones (Femme (2013)) with Craig Richey (A Marine Story (2010)), but unfortunately, it doesn't add very much to the film.
Friends with Money is a fine film about menopause and midlife crisis for married and unmarried people, more than a film much about the issue of money between friends. One might have wanted to stay with the characters and story a little longer. Also, the film isn't funny enough to excel as a drama-comedy, and the drama also isn't really stirring enough for it to break out as more than 'good' as a drama.
Still this is a sensitive and smart film with some lovely actors.
Since Enough Said, Holofcener has jumped back on the TV wagon, and I'm sure I'm not alone in hoping that she comes out with a movie for us again some time soon. 

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2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

 

This poster for Nicole Holofcener's Friends with Money presents the film as a happy-go-lucky, a-laugh-a-minute chick-flick, - which it isn't

 Watch the trailer for the film here

Cost: 6.5 mil. $
Box office: 18.2 mil. $
= Box office success
[Friends with Money premiered as the opening night film at Sundance January 19 and runs 88 min. It opened wide to 4.9 mil. $, but was mostly a limited release at less than 600 screens in North America, where it grossed 13.3 mil. $ (73.1 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Australia with 1.3 mil. $ (7.1 %) and the UK with 0.8 mil. $ (4.4 %). Friends with Money is fresh at 72 % with a 6.6 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Friends with Money?