I'm Still Here

So the truth is finally out that the 'documentary' I’M STILL HERE featuring Joaquin Phoenix is a fake. Billed as documentary it follows Phoenix’s ‘retirement’ from a successful acting career to try his hand at music, more specifically to become a rapper.

Since its debut the film has attracted scathing reviews, from “insulting” to “sad” to describe its content. However in thinking about what can be described essentially as a mockumentary it is interesting to view it through the framework of simulacra.

Baudrillard discusses his notion of simulacra as nothing being authentic and simply a representation of reality. The argument can certainly be made that all documentaries, although they strive to represent and indeed give the impression of reality, are embedded with artifice due to various elements.

However in the case of I’M STILL HERE it’s a very mixed up, yet interesting example of simulacra. Ultimately, it is a depiction of a fictional reality, hiding behind the guise of a documentary. It’s a film of one man’s apparent self-destruction. But what it actually is, is the representation of a man’s self destruction as imagined by Joaquin Phoenix and Casey Affleck. The ‘signs’ to make it appear authentic are what gave it away as a fake. These signs were the use of unsteady camera angles or the fact that there are too many cameras (here’s Jim Schembri’s take on why it was fake). Clearly it is an unsuccessful attempt at simulacra as people recognised it as a fake.