As everybody knows by now, Casey Affleck’s documentary of Joaquin Phoenix’s flame out as a rap star is a fake.
A searing indictment of celebrityhood and a dazzling tour de force by Joaquin, making a fool of himself on the world stage in a way Andy Kaufman for one would’ve appreciated.
BUT
Anybody who saw Phoenix portrayal of Johnny Cash in “I Walk The Line” might be excused for wondering why Director Affleck and lead actor didn’t take it one step further: if Joaquin had actually tried to rap -those he does here are so perfunctory as to be surreal, what would the world have made of it.The movie is more interested in the (acted not real) humiliation by Joaquin of his assistant, leading to the poorly mounted completely self-evidently faked conclusion of their relationship. Casey wants to sneer at the trappings of stardom. good for him. But he had a more interestiing social experiment on his hands and ignored it. Nobody who knows rap, or has seen the actor as Johnny Cash, would’ve been fooled for a moment that these raps were a serious attempt to do anything. The man has a strong voice, if he was to give up his career for rap, why wouldn’t he actually use it?
Also, the backing tracks were all highly efficient and professional. Who made em?
It would’ve been a different, more interesting, and truer story if Joaquin had seriously attempted to make a career -if only for the time of the filming. Was rap chosen to belittle hip hop? It would’ve been interesting, there might have been more than a debilitating shakedown of the cult of celebrity.
Still worth seeing.