Quick NON-Review: I'm Still Here

We all became familiar with the story of Joaquin Phoenix and his apparent meltdown -- saying he was quitting acting to pursue a career as a rapper, gaining weight, growing a scraggly beard, acting bizarrely on the Late Show with David Letterman, etc. Some suspected it was a hoax because Casey Affleck was following him around with a camera, documenting everything.

Then it was announced that a documentary called "I'm Still Here," telling the story of Phoenix's seeming descent into madness, with scenes of drug use and hookers included, would be released. Still, there were doubters who were sure that it was a put-on of some kind, but everyone involved kept insisting it was not a hoax.

Until they decided to tell us it was a hoax. With the film now in theaters, Affleck just came clean to the New York Times and Phoenix is slated to return to the Letterman show next week, in a presumably more coherent condition. (Oddly enough, it seems that one of Letterman's writers did an interview in August 2009 in which he said that it was all a hoax and that Dave was even in on the joke. Only now is anyone paying attention to that interview, it seems.)

Quick review: Bruno

Oh. My. God. I haven't laughed this hard at a movie in a long time. "Bruno" is extremely raunchy, and not for the faint-of-heart, but it's brilliant. Bruno, the extremely gay fashionista, comes to America to become a major celebrity, and tries different roads to that status, with little success. It's a hysterical commentary on celebrities and their charitable activities, stars adopting children from Africa, and (of course) homosexuality and homophobia. My only minor quibble is that I can't help but think that some of the interaction between Bruno and non-celebrities just had to have been planned out in advance. I assume that at least some of the Bruno-and-celebrities interactions were staged; certainly the stars appearing at the end of the film were in on the joke.

I worry about Sacha Baron Cohen, though. He's used up his three characters. He needs to create someone new or do some other kind of movies (not counting his supporting roles in other people's movies, of course; I'm referring to his own productions). My grade: A.