Joaquin-phoenix-pregnant-man

I’m Still Here, the Joaquin Phoenix Cleveland Steamer documentary directed by Casey Affleck (best tagline ever), is currently playing at the Venice Film Festival.  Although it seems pretty clear to me that Joaquin’s crazed cape sprees and mumble rapping were a put on, Casey Affleck (C-Flex) is still telling anyone who will listen that it wasn’t.  …I think.  See if you can figure out what this means:

“Elliptically, I would say … I sincerely don’t want to influence people’s interpretation,” Affleck told reporters. “I can tell you there is no hoax. It makes me think of ‘Candid Camera’ or something.”

I don’t know what that means, but I’m pretty sure he’s being deliberately elliptical (you can tell because he begins the sentence with “Elliptically”).

What follows are scenes depicting his negative downturn [pff,says you]. There’s drug use, graphic language, the search for online sex, a meeting with a prostitute and other hard core scenes, such as of Phoenix attacking a spectator at his own concert.

According to an alleged eye-witness report, there wasn’t much of an “attack”, but that’s neither here nor there…

The documentary includes scenes with well-known entertainers such as Ben Stiller and Sean “Diddy” Combs. Because it would be hard to film Combs and Stiller without their knowing participation, it has fed suspicions that at least some of the film was scripted. [HuffingtonPost]

I don’t begrudge them the film being scripted.  I love a good poop joke, and I know how hard it can be to film a Cleveland Steamer scene if you don’t go in there with proper equipment and a specific plan.  I just don’t understand why they’re trying so hard to pretend it was all real.  It just doesn’t seem like the most flattering lie.  It’d be like if you took a girl back to your place and couldn’t perform, and then you kept telling her, “No, don’t worry, this happens all the time.”