Cassey Affleck’s supposed documentary of Joaquin Phoenix contains nudity, sexuality and obscene language. It is not a pretty picture and at times it is disgusting and crude. It is hard to know whether this is truly an honest glimpse of Joaquin Phoenix’s life at present or an attempt to portray the disastrous outcome of a delusional life brought on by excessive drug use and being pandered to because of the trappings of fame.

Many films have been made that document the downwards spiral of a great performer into psychological turmoil and ultimate self-destructive ruin. “Walk the Line” starring Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash in just such a role, immediately comes to mind. This movie is nothing like that. It has very poor production values even if one is willing to see it as a home produced documentary.  It is poorly written, poorly edited, has very poor sound quality and the visual technology is faulty. The script is also questionable.

The redeeming factor about this movie is that it has a poignant message about a soulless character crying for help who is surrounded by vacuous people professing to be his friends. They hang around like hyenas picking at a decaying carcass.  Periodically we see the Phoenix character struggling to gain some clarity through the drug-induced haze he is engulfed in and to try to throw these hangers -on off. Pitifully this does not seem to happen during the course of the movie and you will have to decide if there is any hope for redemption in the end.

Phoenix is an amazing actor. This movie is not his finest work and hopefully he can recover some of the personal dignity that it has served to strip away. His abilities as a rapper are far from evident as his music is myopic. It seems to be a barrage of ranting.  The “songs” are difficult, even painful at times to listen to. They seem self-indulgent and lack the qualities found in such music as that of P Diddy.

Do not see this movie if you are easily offended and have a preconceived notion about what you might qualify as the degenerate sector of society. Absolutely do see this film otherwise. It is timely and thought provoking.

Moira Romano