I'm Still Here
Magnolia Pictures | Release Date: September 10, 2010 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
48
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
17
Mixed:
4
Negative:
12
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Time OutJoshua Rothkopf
Is Joaquin Phoenix putting us on? After watching the terrifying, near-brilliant exposé I'm Still Here, in which the Oscar nominee's public and private unraveling becomes a sick joke, the question doesn't matter. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
An artful piece of exploitation vérité. Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe Williams
Whether true or a hoax, I'm Still Here represents real risk-taking that I can only applaud. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
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 full review
80
Boxoffice MagazinePam Grady
I'm Still Here does leave us with one big question mark: What will Phoenix do next? How will he top such a flamboyant caper? Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
There's a thrilling madness to Phoenix's Method. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubTasha Robinson
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. If it's a mockumentary, though, its greatest value is in pointing out the media's gullibility, and reminding audiences that even in an age of limited privacy, they still have to question what they're told and even what they witness themselves. It's cruel either way, but riveting nonetheless. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
A sad and painful documentary that serves little useful purpose other than to pound another nail into the coffin. Here is a gifted actor who apparently by his own decision has brought desolation upon his head. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
You've never been quite this close to a movie star, and after enduring the experience you'll likely never want to repeat it. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Regardless of its veracity, this portrait of a drug-addled star who just wants to express himself artistically contains implications that exceed the filmmakers' intentions. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill Goodykoontz
It's effective, entertaining in a remarkably uncomfortable way but entertaining all the same. Read full review
70
VarietyLeslie Felperin
An utterly fascinating experiment that apparently blends real and faked material to examine notions of celebrity, mental stability and friendship. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterDeborah Young
This sporadically engrossing mockumentary, which gets better as it rolls along, must have been planned way back before Phoenix bombed on "Late Show With David Letterman." Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
My guess is that after years of being the trick pony, he wanted to see what it was like to be the ringmaster. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Parts of it are close to genius; most of it is actively torturous to watch. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Affleck's provocative, postmodern take on JP as half-joke, half-victim is the damnedest plunge into the dark heart of our "reality" culture since Sacha Baron Cohen invented Borat. Read full review
63
PremiereMark Salisbury
One suspects the truth will only be revealed if or when Phoenix starts acting again. Certainly on this evidence, he's no great shakes at hip-hop. Read full review
60
EmpireDamon Wise
Affleck's meta-satire riffs amusingly on celebrity culture without hitting too many faux-doc highs. Read full review
50
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
The movie is as damnably perplexing as the subject himself. Read full review
50
Village VoiceKarina Longworth
At once deeply felt and devastatingly cynical, I'm Still Here's bone-dry satire couldn't exist without the celebrity media feedback loop. But its apparent attack on the Hollywood machine is so insidery, so vicious, that to us-the everyday consumer-it's just not clear why this stunt needed to exist at all. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
It's hard not to feel punk'd and trapped amid the company of jerks. Read full review
38
Orlando SentinelRoger MooreOct 23, 2010
It's all tiresome, muddied and artlessly made. Read full review
35
MovielineMichelle Orange
The problem is, whether real, not real, or some Spector-headed stepchild of the two, meltdowns are still not inherently interesting. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Fake or not, I'm Still Here is no fun to watch, and in fact Phoenix's situation comes off as so dire that it becomes a reason to doubt the film's authenticity. Filming someone having a mental breakdown is embarrassing and exploitative at best. Read full review
25
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
Unlike Sacha Baron Cohen's rude semi-documentary satires (Borat, Bruno), I'm Still Here never finds a satiric justification for all this grotesque behaviour. Read full review
25
USA TodayClaudia Puig
It's really not much fun - in fact it's painful - to watch an actor on the verge of a nervous breakdown. It almost doesn't matter if the psyche in question is imploding artificially - as in staged - or organically. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChroniclePeter Hartlaub
If there was ever a human being who needed a visit from the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future, this is the guy. Read full review
12
New York PostKyle Smith
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 full review
0
Chicago ReaderCliff Doerksen
To judge from this agonizing documentary, sniveling man-child Joaquin Phoenix was put on earth to make us appreciate Crispin Glover for the level-headed fellow he is. Read full review
0
Tampa Bay TimesSteve Persall
I'm Still Here is amateurishly shot and edited, as if ineptness equaled some higher level of veracity. Ironically, it's the only Joaquin Phoenix movie anyone has cared about in years. Read full review
0
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
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 in everything from "Gladiator" to "Walk the Line" and even the hackneyed but affecting "Two Lovers." Read full review
0
SlateDana Stevens
The worst thing about I'm Still Here is the fact that it exists. Read full review
0
New York Daily NewsJoe Neumaier
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 full review
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