I Guess You Just Had To Be There
I found this to be a kind of confusing movie. Almost like a reality TV show with the star being Joaquin. The film includes a lot of footage from different stages in this whole process of Joaquin announcing he’s through with acting and wanting to become a hip-hop star named JP. He actually manages to get P Diddy to work with him, or so it seems, but ultimately, everything falls apart. It’s a harsh look into his life during this tumultuous period, rife with outrageous events and drugs, and plenty of foul language.
The hard part about this movie is just getting into it. If you don’t keep up with Joaquin or the others involved or care much about celebrity gossip, then it can be hard to be entertained. It doesn’t help that long periods of the film are utterly boring. Thankfully, over an hour of deleted scenes weren’t included in the final cut, but they’re here for you on the disc. For what it’s worth, and while I’m certainly no professional film critic, you could make a point about this being a difficult film to make, at least in the arena of mass appeal. For students of film or fans of Joaquin or Casey Affleck, you know, there is that niche audience, but for everyone else, myself included, it’s hard not to dismiss this film entirely.
The Blu-ray Release
I’m Still Here was published by Magnolia Home Entertainment. The image and sound quality are very good. The grain in some of the scenes was left in intentionally as far as I’m concerned and the remainder of the film is crisp and with sharp edges.
There are several extra features included as well. They are:
-Audio Commentary with Casey Affleck, Joaquin Phoenix, Nicole Acacio, Larry McHale, Anthony Langdon, Johnny Moreno, Eddie Rouse, Matt Maher, Elliot Gaynon, and Sue Patricola.
-Audio Commentary with Casey Affleck
-Deleted Scenes (SD, 1h2m) – Several extra scenes with optional Director commentary that actually run just over an hour.
-Audio Conversation with Jerry Penacoli
-Audio Conversation with Christine Spines
-Alternate Ending Outtakes with optional Director commentary (SD, 6.5m)
With that, lets get to the summary…
