Joaquin Phoenix

News, Reviews & Features
  • Review: Joker discovers the magical art of not giving a f*ck

    Movie Review | Becky Suter | 8th October 2019

    To be honest, I had every intention of getting this review done as soon as I’d watched the film on Friday, but then I got distracted by Untitled Goose Game and the rest of the weekend was a bit of a waterfowl blur, to be honest. My waking hours were mainly spent terrorising a small, English village, checking off my to-do list before I grew bored and wanted to fuck shit up, just for the sake of it. I stole goods from a small business and planted them in a man’s garden to frame him for theft for pure lols. I trapped the boy in the garage over and over again, because I thought he was was weak and he didn’t like my honking. Unbound by societal demands, I was liberated; I was free. The poor inhabitants of the village had done nothing to deserve my feathery reign of terror, other than they didn’t like me and therefore, I didn’t like them. By the end of the weekend, had even one villager shown just a morsel of kindness toward me (a piece of bread, perhaps), I would have just honked in their stupid faces, and continued to destroy everything they hold dear. I didn’t set out to be the figurehead of the goose rebellion; they made me that way. Throughout the ages, village elders will tell tales of "The Goose That Hid in a Box, Then Jumped Out and Scared the Lady.” In the early hours of the morning with no more worlds left to conquer, I closed my laptop and remembered I said I was going to do a write-up of Joker, about a marginalised character on the fringes of society who adopts an alter-ego in a downward spiral, and I realised my story had already been told, except it was filmed a lot better and had Joaquin Phoenix in it and not so many geese.

  • Alternate poster for Spike Jonze's Her

    Movie News | Ali | 10th August 2013

    She's the belle of the ball! (Real poster at IMP)

  • The Master

    Movie Review | Ali | 1st November 2012

    For all the talk of The Master being a Scientology exposé – the kind which could feasibly cause the very foundations of Hollywood to crumble – Paul Thomas Anderson's sixth feature is instead an intimate, intense character study that's more interested in the dynamic between follower and leader than sharing the secrets of the snake oil salesman. It won't have you calling for the head of Tom Cruise, but it will make you re-evaluate Joaquin Phoenix post I'm Still Here and it will have you longing for PTA movies at a rate of more than one every five years. Woozy, boozy, sleazy and dreamy, it's impossible not to be seduced by The Master – and, indeed, the master.

  • Masterful.

    Movie News | Ali | 19th July 2012

    A message in a bottle, perhaps? Can't friggin' wait for Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master. (Courtesy of HuffPo).

  • New PTA trailer sparks Master debate

    Movie Trailer | Ali | 21st May 2012

    Nice try Bond, but today's most exciting trailer is the teaser for Paul Thomas Anderson's Scientology parable The Master, complete with creepy Joaquin Phoenix smile and clanky Jonny Greenwood score.

  • Poster for the best film of 2013

    Movie News | Ali | 18th May 2011

    It's blurry. It's unofficial. It's untitled. It's not even in production yet. Seriously though, just trust me on this one.

  • I'm Still Here

    Movie Review | Ali | 19th September 2010

    Reviewing I'm Still Here isn't easy. Neither is watching it. A few weeks ago, I was convinced it was all a set-up, because the situations within are far too contrived to be caught on camera, despite the on and off-screen protestations that, yes, you really are seeing Joaquin Phoenix having a meltdown. The Oscar-nominated actor had apparently ballooned in weight, grown a hobo-chic beard, ditched acting for rapping and had become a full-time, drugged-up asshole. OMG etc.

  • I'm Still Here trailer - Joaquin Phoenix really is crazy

    Movie Trailer | Matt | 18th August 2010

    Casey Affleck's documentary about Joaquin Phoenix's decision to quit acting and become a hip-hop rapper is on its way. So is he a) entirely deluded and on the brink of a nervous breakdown, or b) orchestrator of an elaborate hoax?

  • The Incredible Joaq? Phoenix allegedly in Hulk talks

    Movie News | Ali | 12th July 2010

    Unrelated side-note: Joaquin Phoenix's birth name is Joaquin Bottom. I promise you I am not making this up.

  • Two Lovers

    Movie Review | Anna | 5th April 2009

    Please please let the dark glasses Joaquin Phoenix has been wearing lately conceal a playful glint in his eye as he takes the world for a merry ride. The announcement that he intends to quit acting, followed by his bizarre appearance on Letterman and his disastrous "hip-hop" gigs, are either the result of a spectacular topple of...