I'm Still Here 2010

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: Whatever their actual intentions, I'm Still Here does take on, at times forcefully and effectively, the pathological fallout of the Entertainment Industrial Complex. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: I'm Still Here is a picture of spoiled entitlement, but its real impressiveness comes with its unusually mature sense of pacing. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: There's a thrilling madness to Phoenix's Method. Read more

John Hartl, Seattle Times: What I'm Still Here most resembles is a less slick, less witty, feature-length version of HBO's Entourage, with several unusually raunchy touches... Read more

Tasha Robinson, AV Club: If this is a documentary, it's a profoundly embarrassing one, in which Affleck has exposed Phoenix's soul and found it shallow and damaged. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Parts of it are close to genius; most of it is actively torturous to watch. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Rarely has the question of a documentary's artifice mattered less. I genuinely hated this picture, almost as much as I've admired Phoenix's work. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: If we're truly witnessing the unraveling of a talented man in his prime, it's just sad. If it's all performance art, though, it's just pointless. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Chances are the joke is on us. The problem is the joke isn't very funny. In fact, it's kind of vile. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: The movie understands that his Last Honest Man in Showbiz routine is really a performance -- even if it's one the actor himself is only dimly aware of. Read more

Laremy Legel, Film.com: Joaquin is simply adding to the ugliness, encouraging the fools, and wasting everyone's time. Read more

Deborah Young, Hollywood Reporter: Joaquin Phoenix and Casey Affleck push the edges of celebrity spoof in a mockumentary worth watching. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: A glum and dispiriting counterfeit of reality that turns out to be much more interesting to speculate about than to actually watch. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: If the movie is a fake, the filmmakers deserve Oscars for creativity. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: The whole thing is such a tedious, foul-mouthed mess that it isn't even worth discussing as a riff on the Bob Dylan doc Don't Look Back or a meditation on slovenly semi-madness. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: When I'm Still Here reached its climactic moment -- Joaquin Phoenix puking into a toilet -- I had never before felt quite so much like a toilet. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: A meditation on a life lived in the public eye, I'm Still Here is strange, riveting, and occasionally appalling stuff, any way you look at it. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: It's not well-done technically -- the image and sound are bad -- but it has the advantage of access to private and tormented moments. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: I'm not sure I believed a word of this film. Actors who melt down on camera are usually, well, acting. But I couldn't take my eyes off I'm Still Here. Read more

Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle: I'm Still Here is like watching the 15 minutes in Boogie Nights where Dirk Diggler tries to become a recording artist, stretched into a full-length movie. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: The worst thing about I'm Still Here is the fact that it exists. Read more

Peter Schilling, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Since Phoenix spends half the film with his head down, mumbling and shirtless, I'm Still Here is literally (and figuratively) an exercise in navel-gazing. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: No doubt what we witness is a performance for the camera, but with what motivation? Or is the hoax a hoax? Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: In the great Joaquin debate -- is he crazy like a loon, or like a fox? -- the smart Hollywood money is on fox. Read more

David Jenkins, Time Out: The film is made up of half-formed sketches in which Phoenix comes across like a childish crank who's escaped from his soap box at Speakers' Corner. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Whether truth or folly, it's not particularly well made. Even in the midst of Phoenix's most oddball and obsessive torment, it's boring. Read more

Leslie Felperin, Variety: An utterly fascinating experiment that apparently blends real and faked material to examine notions of celebrity, mental stability and friendship. Read more

Karina Longworth, Village Voice: Perhaps it goes without saying that Here was more provocative when it couldn't be seen, when it existed for most of us purely in the realm of rumor. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: The movie is as damnably perplexing as the subject himself. Read more