---
title: "I'm Still Here"
year: 2010
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/im-still-here-2010"
fi1m_id: "im-still-here-2010"
imdb_id: "tt1356864"
tmdb_id: 43939
wikidata_id: "Q1552765"
fi1m_score: 60
critics_score: 64
critics_reviews: 18
published: "2026-09-27T09:20:56.121066+00:00"
updated: "2026-09-27T09:20:56.693747+00:00"
region: "BG"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# I'm Still Here (2010)

Directed by Casey Affleck · 1h 47m · Music, Comedy, Drama

## Identity

I'm Still Here

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/im-still-here-2010
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** im-still-here-2010
- **IMDb ID:** tt1356864
- **TMDB ID:** 43939
- **Wikidata ID:** Q1552765
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1356864/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/43939, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1552765

**Fi1m score: 60** · Critics 64 from 18 reviews

*In a sentence:* A rich man is rude to everyone paid to like him, for 107 minutes, on purpose

> Casey Affleck’s staged record of Joaquin Phoenix’s retreat into rap is a committed piece of pretending, funny in bursts and cruel to bystanders, and its single joke is stretched well past the point where it stops paying. For the curious rather than the sceptical.

## Synopsis

Los Angeles, late 2008. Joaquin Phoenix (Joaquin Phoenix), fresh from *Two Lovers*, tells a reporter at a charity event that he is finished with acting and is going to make hip-hop records. He grows a beard, puts on weight and dark glasses, and sets up a recording rig in his house. Anton (Antony Langdon) and Larry McHale (Larry McHale), the friends who work for him, are expected to keep the cameras running, the drugs coming and the doubters out. Casey Affleck (Casey Affleck) follows him with a small crew, into hotel rooms, car back seats and the dim home studio. His agent and publicist want him to stop. What Phoenix wants is to be taken seriously as a rapper, and nobody, including the people he pays, can quite manage it.

## Review

In late 2008 Joaquin Phoenix told a reporter at a charity event that he was giving up acting to make hip-hop records, and for more than a year he went about in a beard and dark glasses, mumbling, looking like a man who had lost a bet with himself. Casey Affleck was beside him with a camera. *I’m Still Here* is what Affleck filmed, cut to 107 minutes, and it is a hoax; he said so the week it came out. Knowing that changes the film. You stop worrying about the man and start asking what the film is for, and the film is not always sure.

Phoenix is the whole show and he does not stint. He puts on weight, gives up shaving, chain-smokes, and delivers every line as if from the bottom of a well. He has played a musician before, Johnny Cash in [*Walk the Line*](https://film.one/film/walk-the-line), and here he plays a man who cannot be one: the rhymes are bad, the delivery is worse, and he performs them with total conviction. His rages land on Anton (Antony Langdon) and Larry McHale (Larry McHale), the friends he employs, who wear the flat, careful look of people who have stopped arguing back. Whether they knew the script is a question the film never settles. Langdon in particular gives a performance, if it is one, of real patience.

Affleck and Magdalena Górka shoot it on small cameras in hotel rooms, car back seats and a dim home studio, with the focus slipping and the whites blowing out, and it looks exactly like the footage it claims to be. That is the film’s best trick. Affleck and Dody Dorn cut it so that other people’s reactions are held a beat longer than comfort allows, and those beats are where the comedy lives. Marty Fogg’s music is kept to a minimum. Most of what we hear is Phoenix’s own beats, which are the joke and also, for long stretches, the soundtrack.

The scenes that work best are the ones in which Phoenix carries his demo out of the house and plays it to people who make records for a living, then waits for a verdict. They listen with the face of someone deciding how to be kind to a man who may be ill. We laughed, hard, and then felt slightly ashamed, because they were behaving well and the film was using that against them. The same happens whenever he sits down to be interviewed: he chews gum, says almost nothing, and lets the other person do the work. The joke is always on whoever was not told.

That is also the trouble. For an hour and three quarters the film has one joke, a famous man being awful to people paid to put up with him, and it does not find a second. The cameos do not help: Jack Nicholson, Billy Crystal, Danny Glover, Bruce Willis, Robin Wright and Danny DeVito all pass through, none for long, none asked to do more than be recognised. Around the eighty-minute mark we were bored, and then cross about being bored by something so strenuously performed. The film wants to show how much we enjoy watching famous people fall apart. Its method is to give us ninety minutes of exactly that, and we did not need the lesson to notice.

There is a real question underneath, and Affleck brushes against it more than once: what a star owes the people around him, and what a camera does to a room. But the film keeps choosing the gag over the question. The assistants are treated as furniture. One late scene in a hotel room is so nasty that the film’s claim to be satire rather than spectacle gives way, and we will not describe it.

[*This Is Spinal Tap*](https://film.one/film/this-is-spinal-tap) (1984) understood that the people being mocked have to be liked. Affleck and Phoenix have not tried to make Phoenix likeable, which is brave, and it means that when the joke runs dry there is nobody left to stay for. See it if you remember the fuss and want to know what was behind it. Watch it at home, where you can leave during the rapping and miss nothing that matters.

*Fi1m score 60, published 27 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

Most critics lean towards approval, though the reviews split almost evenly between the warm and the lukewarm. Where they agree is on what the film is: a send-up of celebrity culture, and a sharp one when it works. Praise clusters around Joaquin Phoenix’s commitment to the act, whatever the act turns out to be, and around the awkward encounters with Sean Combs and Letterman, which several critics name as the funniest passages. A few also credit Affleck for keeping the humour on a tight leash.

The reservations gather around the question the film declines to answer: whether any of it is real. For the sympathetic, the ambiguity is the point; for the rest, it leaves the film’s intentions muddy and its pacing slack. The spread is wide. The Los Angeles Times finds it glum and exploitative, The Independent more exasperating than entertaining, and Slant self-indulgent, though even the doubters admit the central joke lands now and then.

## Straight answers

**Is I'm Still Here worth watching?**

*I'm Still Here* is worth watching only for the curious, and we scored it 60. Casey Affleck's staged record of Joaquin Phoenix's retreat into rap is funny in bursts and cruel to the people around him, and its one joke runs dry well before the 107 minutes are up. See it if you remember the fuss and want to know what was behind it.

**How long is I'm Still Here, and what is it rated?**

*I'm Still Here* runs 1h 47m. It is a music and comedy film.

**Where can I watch I'm Still Here in Bulgaria?**

*I'm Still Here* is not on any streaming or rental service in Bulgaria at the moment. It is available in 9 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily.

**How violent or frightening is I'm Still Here, and is it suitable for children?**

*I'm Still Here* is a 15 in the UK and an R in the US, and it is not for children. There is no violence to speak of, but there are drugs, constant swearing and a great deal of a famous man being unpleasant to the people he pays, and one late hotel-room scene is nasty enough that we will not describe it. Squeamish adults may want to leave during it.

**How does I'm Still Here compare to This Is Spinal Tap?**

*I'm Still Here* is the meaner and slighter of the two, and [*This Is Spinal Tap*](https://film.one/film/this-is-spinal-tap) is the better film by some distance. Reiner's mock documentary likes the fools it mocks and takes care over the songs; Affleck and Phoenix make no effort to make Phoenix likeable, and the rapping is the joke rather than music. Watch Spinal Tap for comedy, this one for curiosity about a hoax.

**What should I watch after I'm Still Here?**

After *I'm Still Here*, try [*This Is Spinal Tap*](https://film.one/film/this-is-spinal-tap) (1984, Fi1m 91): The mock rock documentary that got the sound and the affection right. Then [*Exit Through the Gift Shop*](https://film.one/film/exit-through-the-gift-shop) (2010, Fi1m 76): Banksy’s possibly-true film about a man who accidentally becomes an artist.

### Reviews we read (18)

- **Total Film**, James Mottram (4/5): Mottram finds the film sharp, often hilarious, and an incisive critique of celebrity culture. He singles out its ambiguity over whether Phoenix’s apparent collapse is real or an elaborate performance. [Read](https://www.gamesradar.com/i-m-still-here-review/)
- **Empire**, Damon Wise (75/100, inferred): Wise finds the film an effective send-up of celebrity culture, though some scenes are less arresting. He singles out the awkward encounters with Diddy, Affleck and Letterman as its strongest moments. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/m-still-review/)
- **Variety**, Leslie Felperin (75/100, inferred): Felperin finds the film an utterly fascinating experiment, though its appeal depends partly on viewers’ curiosity about Phoenix’s public persona. She praises its examination of the blurry boundary between performance and reality, while noting its potentially troubling, tragic undertones. [Read](https://variety.com/2010/film/markets-festivals/i-m-still-here-1117943443/)
- **Evening Standard** (70/100, inferred): The critic finds the mockumentary clever and entertaining, while recognizing its pointed critique of Hollywood. Phoenix’s mesmerising, hilarious performance is singled out for praise. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/the-jokes-on-hollywood-in-i-m-still-here-7421627.html)
- **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (65/100, inferred): Bradshaw finds the film funny and ultimately good, though its ambiguity leaves its intentions uncertain. He singles out the staged, amusing encounters with P Diddy and Phoenix’s humiliating attempt to win him over. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/sep/16/im-still-there-review)
- **The Hollywood Reporter**, The Associated Press (65/100, inferred): The review finds the mockumentary uneven but increasingly engrossing, with uncertainty about its reality sometimes leaving viewers puzzled. It praises the film most when its tricks recede and Phoenix emerges as the subject of a funny, compelling character study. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/im-still-here-film-review-29947/)
- **Screen Daily**, Lee Marshall (64/100, inferred): The page identifies this as a review, but its text is blocked behind a registration prompt. The critic's verdict and any specific praise or complaint are not visible. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/-im-still-here/5017830.article)
- **The AV Club**, AV Club Staff (64/100, inferred): The review text is not available, so its verdict cannot be determined. No specific praise or complaint can be verified from the visible page. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/im-still-here-1798221370)
- **The New York Times** (64/100, inferred): The article text is inaccessible, so the critic’s verdict cannot be determined. No specific praise or complaint can be verified from the available page. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/17/movies/17affleck.html)
- **Time Out**, Dave Calhoun (3/5): Calhoun gives the film a middling three-star rating. The available description singles out its intimate documentary approach to Joaquin Phoenix’s public behavior, but the review text is unavailable. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/im-still-here-3)
- **Slant Magazine**, Simon Abrams (2/4): Abrams finds the film self-indulgent and pretentious, though its central joke can be funny. He singles out the drawn-out final scene as the film’s most effective gag and a test of the viewer’s tolerance. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/im-still-here/)
- **Los Angeles Times**, Kenneth Turan (30/100, inferred): Turan finds the film glum and dispiriting, ultimately more intriguing to speculate about than to watch. He praises how effectively it plays on expectations about celebrity behavior while faulting its exploitative, unconvincing portrayal of Phoenix’s apparent crisis. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-sep-10-la-et-stillhere-20100910-story.html)
- **The Independent** (30/100, inferred): The critic finds the film more exasperating than entertaining and says its pacing is slow. They single out the Letterman appearance and Sean Combs’s reaction as especially droll moments. [Read](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/i-m-still-here-15-2081252.html)
- **NME**, Tim Chester (85/100, inferred): The critic argues that the film is a brilliantly subversive send-up rather than a real documentary. They praise Phoenix’s committed performance and the film’s skill at sustaining the hoax. [Read](https://www.nme.com/blogs/the-movies-blog/why-joaquin-phoenixs-im-still-here-is-obviously-a-send-up-39386)
- **Den of Geek**, Joseph Ewens (4/5): Ewens finds the film an intriguing portrait of a troubled psyche, despite a rushed, contrived ending. He praises its effectively scattered comic moments and gripping scenes of Phoenix’s career unraveling. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/im-still-here-review/)
- **Digital Spy**, Simon Reynolds (80/100, inferred): Reynolds finds the film a riveting, funny, and bittersweet portrait of self-destruction, even as it leaves questions of authenticity unanswered. He praises Affleck’s carefully managed humor, especially the comic contrast between Phoenix’s grand ambitions and his increasingly ridiculous behavior. [Read](https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a275602/im-still-here/)
- **The Playlist**, Rodrigo Perez (B): The critic finds the film flawed and morally dubious but strangely watchable and entertaining. He praises its final sequence in Panama for its emotional resonance and suggestion of rebirth. [Read](https://theplaylist.net/review-im-still-here-doc-about-joaquin-20100908/)
- **/Film**, Peter Sciretta (45/100, inferred): The critic finds the film entertaining as spectacle but says it falls short as art. He singles out other people’s reactions to Phoenix’s antics as its best moments. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/511052/tiff-movie-review-casey-afflecks-im-still-here/)

## Details

- **Director:** Casey Affleck
- **Director:** Casey Affleck
- **Writer:** Joaquin Phoenix, Casey Affleck
- **Cinematography:** Magdalena Górka, Casey Affleck
- **Editor:** Casey Affleck, Dody Dorn
- **Music:** Marty Fogg
- **Producer:** Joaquin Phoenix, Casey Affleck, Amanda White
- **Cast:** Joaquin Phoenix as Joaquin Phoenix; Antony Langdon as Anton; Carey Perloff as Play Director; Larry McHale as Larry McHale; Casey Affleck as Casey Affleck; Jack Nicholson as Jack Nicholson; Billy Crystal as Billy Crystal; Danny Glover as Danny Glover
- **Runtime:** 1h 47m
- **First release (Italy):** 6 September 2010
- **Genres:** Music, Comedy, Drama
- **Box office:** $626,396
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4-oww1rA28

## Where to watch in Bulgaria

Not streaming, renting or buying in Bulgaria at the last check.

Also available in: AT, AU, CH, DE, GB, IT, MX, NZ, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## If you liked this

- *F for Fake* (1973): Orson Welles on forgers and liars; the hoax film that knows when to stop.
- *This Is Spinal Tap* (1984), Fi1m 91: The mock rock documentary that got the sound and the affection right. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/this-is-spinal-tap.md)
- *Overnight* (2003): A real Hollywood ego on a real camera, and no need to fake the collapse.
- *Man on the Moon* (1999): Andy Kaufman’s career of hoaxes, played by Jim Carrey, who took notes.
- *Exit Through the Gift Shop* (2010), Fi1m 76: Banksy’s possibly-true film about a man who accidentally becomes an artist. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/exit-through-the-gift-shop.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/im-still-here-2010