Casey Affleck doesn't know what "I'm Still Here" is about - his own movie

Roger Ebert has posted a great interview with Casey Affleck about his recently outed mockumentary I'm Still Here, which follows the exploits of Joaquin Phoenix. The actor grew a beard, quit acting, and tried to start a rap career. Most reviewers suspected it was staged, but none knew for sure, until Affleck came clean to the New York Times some days ago. Ebert, who believed the film was real, asked the director what the point of the movie was; you know, why the two of them spent a year creating this character and story. His response: he doesn't really know.

From Roger Ebert's Journal

Ebert: I assume you and Joaquin didn't go through this long period of time for frivolous reasons. What was your larger purpose? Your philosophy, dare I say? Joaquin's?

Affleck: To tell a story. To make a movie. Isn't it the job of the director to figure out the best way to tell the story they have to tell? This was the best way I could think of to tell this story, about this character. It's a movie about a famous actor who has been acting for a long time and who wants to change paths, to change his life, to peruse a career in music. But he makes mistakes and the world is unforgiving. Things go wrong. He can't recover. He digs himself deeper and deeper.

There are ideas in the film that are interesting to me. I don't have a point to make, though. If it feels like a cautionary tale, what would be the warning? When you have a dream and others tell you, you are no good, give it up? Don't become famous? Prepare, practice and use stepping stones? Or maybe don't be incredibly mean to those around you? Some things seems too obvious, some seem lacking. I don't know the point. I only know that it is of course in some way about celebrity culture. Its about fame, in some way. I don't know what it says exactly but I know that it makes me wonder when I watch it. I'm OK with that.

All cultures are different. Some commit genocide. Some are uniquely peaceful. Some frequent bathhouses in groups. Some don't show each other the soles of their shoes or like pictures taken of them. Some have enormous hunting festivals or annual stretches when nobody speaks. Some don't use electricity. We obsess about celebrities. We create them, build myths around them, and then hunt them and destroy them. I don't know where its taking us or what it means but I know we do it. I have seen a lot of it myself.

So his purpose is to make a movie...about nothing. This sounds suspiciously like a TV sitcom proposal I remember...

A part of me believed that Joaquin Phoenix lost his mind when he appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman last year. He was rude, confused, and desperately needed a haircut. I haven't yet seen the film, but I've heard mostly conflicting opinions about it. Some say it's a great portrayal, while others argue that he's rather inconsistent, acting one way when he's alone and less crazy when around celebrities. Few believed the documentary to be real. 

Joaquin Phoenix on The Late Show in 2009

Joaquin Phoenix apologizing on The Late Show the other day

So what's the point? Why make this movie if you have no point to make, nothing to say? This confuses me more than Phoenix's behavior on Letterman did way back in 2009. I'll have to wait to see the film, but should I even care?

[Update 9/23/2010: Added Phoenix apology video]