I M Still Here [DVD]

Controversial documentary (or rather, apparent mockumentary) that follows Joaquin Phoenix's transformation from actor to hip-hop singer. After "Two Lovers", the actor declared that he was tired of acting, that he was leaving the world of acting, and that in the future he would dedicate himself exclusively to his role as a singer. In his few appearances in the media, an almost unrecognizable Phoenix also showed increasingly strange and unsociable behavior, and his brother-in-law and great friend Casey Affleck was always nearby with a camera to film what was happening. Given the nature of some of the images, which include frontal male nudity, drug use and Phoenix having oral sex, it all appeared to be real. In September 2010 the film was finally premiered at the Venice Festival, without revealing the mystery of whether it was fake or not, and receiving a good reception from critics. At the subsequent press conference Affleck said that everything was real, that Phoenix had left the movies. But days later, in The New York Times, he confessed that it was false, and later Phoenix himself, on David Letterman's show, revealed that he was always playing a character. Phoenix's words: "Affleck and I wanted to make a film that explored freedom, the relationship between the media, its consumers, and celebrities themselves."