Take a close look at the new poster for I'm Still There below and ask yourself: is this man the future of US hip-hop? If Joaquin Phoenix really is the artist to unite east and west coasts with his lyrical flow, he's doing it without recourse to a hairbrush and sporting the kind of beard that could easily double up as an aviary.
As its subtitle - 'The Lost Year of Joaquin Phoenix' - suggests, I'm Still There charts the actor's reinvention from Oscar-nominated heavyweight to rapper, taking in some seriously off-the-wall antics, and presumably one or two actual rhymes, along the way.
Co-directed by J-Pho's brother-in-law Casey Affleck and Tom Blomquist, the doc/mock-doc is described by its distributor Magnolia Pictures as "a portrait of an artist at a crossroads, exploring the ramifications of a life spent in the public eye."
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But is it all a grand hoax or is Phoenix lost to the rap game for good? All will be revealed when I'm Still There is released in the US on September 10.
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