Performance Hoax!

[plumtreeblossom]

I am so glad and relieved that the supposed documentary I'm Still Here by Joaquin Phoenix and Casey Affleck chronicling Joaquin's descent into drug-shattered madness was in fact a work of staged fiction.

I'm relieved, as I've long admired Joaquin Phoenix's work and had been following his career for a long time when he suddenly claimed he was quitting acting and fell into what looked like profound mental illness and drug abuse. I couldn't believe his brother-in-law Casey Affleck was enabling such behavior. I wasn't going to see the movie because it was just so sad and rather perverse that someone's psychiatric collapse would be marketed like that. But now that I know it's performance, I am more into them both than ever! And I will indeed see it.

My moral compass doesn't quite know where to point with regard to actors spending two years riling up concern from their fans in quite this way, but I'll withhold judgment until after I see the film.

Comments

[joyeous.livejournal.com]

Wow. He's one of my favorite actors as well.

[thespian.livejournal.com]

you know, if his brother hadn't died the way he did, this would be in questionable taste, but well, you might put it aside. Since his brother DID die the way he did, i think this is horrifyingly tasteless.

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

My thought exactly. But for all we know, maybe this is somehow his way of...processing? Coming to terms with it? I don't know. On the other hand, maybe he's just somehow turned into a famewhore.

[minkrose]

I haven't decided where I fall on the "tasteless" spectrum here, but my first thought WAS of his brother.

I probably won't have time to see it, so I'd love to hear thoughts from people who do see it.

[beowabbit]

Completely offtopic, but I love my darling honeywuzzle.

[ron_newman]

Reminds me a bit of Exit Through the Gift Shop.