The saga is almost over. I'm Still Here: The Lost Year of Joaquin Phoenix **now has a distributor, thanks to Magnolia Pictures and its CEO Eamonn Bowles.
Is it a mockumentary or a documentary? A stunt or a meltdown? The answer still isn't quite out there. As previously reported, the film, in which Casey Affleck pointed a camera at his brother-in-law and followed him around as he behaved generally oddly and apparently tried to reinvent himself as a rap star, was shown to potentially interested parties, including the Weinsteins, a couple of months ago, and met with general bafflement. Affleck says it's real. Sean Combs, who's in it, says it's real. Other people who've seen it? Really not sure.
If Bowles has an opinion, he's not revealing it yet. But he did tell Deadline that he felt confident it was a film that Magnolia could get behind (they also released Phoenix's pre-wig-out drama Two Lovers, with Gwyneth Paltrow). "No matter what I thought coming in," he says, "I came out feeling this was a pretty amazing piece of work: jaw dropping but dimensional. It's going to get a lot of attention, but it is not some cheap stunt where they said, 'let's do some wild stuff and film it.' It is extreme behavior but it's in the context of the insanity of being in Joaquin's life for that period of time. It is a unique piece of work that is going to surprise people in different ways. It's really good filmmaking."
I'm Still Here might hit the Venice or Toronto film festivals, but will get a general release in mid-September. That's specific to the US so far, but hopefully it'll cross the Atlantic later in the year. If not, there's still VoD.