Almost two years after the weird mockumentary ‘I’m Still Here’ directed by friend Casey Affleck, and four years since his last ‘normal’ film Two Lovers, Joaquin Phoenix seems to have jumped back on the sanity-train. Because though a work of genius (fairly distributed between Affleck and himself) that film was actually nuts, so much so that the Internet Movie Database fails to mention it.

For those of you who don’t know what i’m talking about: during the promotional campaign for Two Lovers Phoenix appeared in public with a ragged beard and some distressing declarations that he was done acting to pursue a career in the music business, namely as a very poor rapper. He started to, how shall we put it, go bonkers both in private and on tv. For a good year, if not more, this went on. Until one day the evil masterplan was revealed: Phoenix was simply (such a non-appropriate word) shooting his next movie with friend and brother in law Casey Affleck behind the camera of a “documentary” that shocked many.

It was, in my mind, maybe his best performance and, i suppose, a great show of commitment staying in character for so long.

This said Cannes is now about to see some scene from his next film, by Paul Thomas Anderson:

A 1950s-set drama centered on the relationship between a charismatic intellectual known as “the Master” whose faith-based organization begins to catch on in America, and a young drifter who becomes his right-hand man. (IMDB)

We all agree on the fact that the subject of the movie doesn’t make for a very sane character for the guy, but it looks like it’s going to be another professional success.

Here’s the trailer, gently posted on Twitter by producer Megan Ellison.

Source: Badtaste.it