Will Casey Affleck end up in movie jail after admitting 'I'm Still Here' was a hoax?

Judging from the early reaction inside Hollywood, Casey Affleck and Joaquin Phoenix will have a lot of explaining to do in the coming days. It turns out that Affleck's "I'm Still Here," which purported to be a documentary, depicting an out-of-control Phoenix self-destructing before our very eyes, was actually a hoax. Virtually all of the footage, notably the scenes of Phoenix doing drugs, consorting with hookers and berating his personal assistants, was fake.

Affleck's embarrassingly weak defense? "I never intended to trick anybody," he told the New York Times. "The idea of quote, hoax, unquote, never entered my  mind." He said he wanted viewers to experience the film's narrative, about the disintegration of celebrity, without being clouded by preconceived notions. "We wanted to create a space. You believe what is happening is real," adding that he considered what Phoenix did on screen "a terrific performance, it's the performance of his career."

While it's a performance, it's also undeniably a trick. In fact, Affleck had clearly hoped to trick as many people as possible, at least in the sense of making audiences wonder if what they were seeing was real or staged -- or some strange new hybrid art form. He failed in the most obvious way. Even though the film has attracted a mountain of press attention -- there's nothing the media loves more than the prospect of eyeballing a celebrity in a steep career tailspin -- very few people have bothered to see the film, which has been in limited release in selected cities around the country. And while some critics, such as Roger Ebert, were upset by Phoenix's behavior, a number of others, like my colleague Kenneth Turan and the New York Times' Manohla Dargis, seemed to immediately suspect the film was a put-on. 

Dargis described the movie as "a deadpan satire or a deeply sincere folly (my money is on the first option)," adding that the film was being "unpersuasively sold as a documentary."

So what was Affleck really up to? I suspect that he (and Phoenix) thought it would be a real kick to see how many people they could embarrass and fool into taking the whole spectacle seriously, especially the supposed rubes in the media whom they clearly despise. People in Hollywood have little concern for truthtelling, since there is so little of it in their daily showbiz lives, where everyone is passing themselves off as something they aren't, whether it's lying about their age, how much cosmetic work they've had done or how much they supposedly liked their best friend's new movie -- you know, the one they secretly hated every minute of.

It was especially telling that the first two showbiz insiders I spoke to after the news broke had similar reactions--as in, big friggin' deal. To hear them tell it, the film was an eccentric, not to mention self-important, exercise in foolishness, concocted by two knuckleheads who seemed peeved either because they didn't have successful A-list careers or because they thought the industry was too dull and mindless to allow them to take the kind of bold risks that real artists take.

If Affleck and Phoenix had really pulled off the hoax--i.e., drawn big crowds to see the movie--perhaps their peers would've showed more respect. But in Hollywood, people keep their distance from failure, always afraid of being too close to the stink. The early betting line is that Affleck won't be getting to direct another movie any time soon. Affleck likes to think of the movie as "gonzo filmmaking." But his detractors see it as little more than clownish score settling. As one industry agent put it, clearly looking ahead to Phoenix's upcoming appearance on David Letterman's late-night show, "Boy, if Letterman wasn't in on the joke, he is really going to take that poor guy to the cleaners."

Photo: Casey Affleck at a screening for "I'm Still Here" at the Venice Film Festival. Credit: Domenico Stinellis / Associated Press

 

 

Comments

[Susan]

Really? You needed them to come out and tell you it was fake?

[agonyflips]

Patrick Goldstein. Have you even seen the movie?
It appears not. Maybe you're own comments about it would appear more valid if say you had. Regardless it's more of an Andy Kaufman's Tony Clifton like performance. It's like Borat, but dark and serious, and instead of using a fake persona, they used a known celebrity which brings about an incredible challenging method acting role that I doubt most actors could ever pull off.
Apart from just being ironic that you're mocking a Mockumentary-it's redundant and obtuse--fail.
I wonder were you calling Sacha Baron Cohen a fake and Borat a hoax.
Performance art Patrick. And I thought, "on the collision of entertainment, media and pop culture" was your bag?

[b.johnson]

Well if their goal was to fool the "supposed rubes in the media" they may not have been totally successful. However, they were evidently successful in pissing those rubes off. You seem fairly razzed by the whole thing.

[eva]

Joaquin is an excelent actor!

[Candide]

This article is silly. Everybody knew this was a hoax from the get-go. Why act surprised? It's not as good as Borat or Andy Kaufman, but they gave it their best shot.

[You won't print this; it's too true]

You are wrong again. The acting and directing on this was brilliant. Both will be bigger than they ever where before. Letterman was in on it. Get over yourself. You can't take your eyes off your navel for one second can you? Letterman's gonna take him to the cleaners?! And he's going to clean his clock, too! What decade are you living in? And if you think their success can be measured only by the box office, you should not be a film critic.

[Scott M]

Your writing skills are amateur, at best.

[Brion Rockwell]

Not A list? Two of the most talented actors in Hollywood, both starring in big movies and smaller, more interesting films. 99.9% of every actor in the U.S. would kill to have their careers and place in Hollywood.

[billyjoe]

Casey Affleck is out for damage control because career is in huge trouble. Not only for the faked "I'm Still Here," but also for starring in the hyper-violent "The Killer Inside of Me," which was also panned as an exercise in misogyny. He'd better land a "dad" role in some Disney film if he wants to keep working.

[Mark]

If Casey Affleck ends up in "movie jail," I want to be his cellmate. Woof! What a hot man.