What made the film so notable wasn’t the film itself, but the environment the film was in. The film itself was hardly seen, and in itself was unremarkable. In the film, Phoenix plays himself as he pursues a rap career. What changed to make him the adored cinematic figure he is today? A strange little pseudo-documentary called I’m Still Here. Yet there was hardly anyone calling him the finest actor of his generation. Yet, there was never a time when Phoenix was more appreciated than right now – before now, Phoenix had always been known as the talented actor who was just ignored a bit too long. If you think about it, Joaquin Phoenix has been around for quite a while – Gladiator and Walk the Line being his major accomplishments. Both would be wrong – Phoenix is a brilliant actor today because he truly worked hard at it, and was very selective with his projects. You can say it is because Phoenix got lucky. Sure, Phoenix doesn’t do the same kind of work that he used to as a kid, yet no one would ever consider him any less than a brilliant actor nowadays, right? We could attribute that to Phoenix coming from an acting family – his brother was the late River Phoenix, after all. Joaquin Phoenix stands as being one of the best examples of a child actor sustaining his career until adulthood. To be perfectly honest, there aren’t too many examples of child actors who go on to have great careers – they exist, but just not as much as the cute little kids’ performances all those years ago would imply. “Child actor” – a term that probably conjures up images of either a cute little kid grew up to be a drug addict or recluse or any kind of hot mess. At the age of only 40, it is dubious to say that Phoenix is perhaps the finest living actor today (let’s be honest, Robert De Niro and Al Pacino are not doing the great work they used to, and Jack Nicholson has just plain stopped acting unfortunately) – but when you consider Phoenix’s resume, it isn’t hard to back up this claim. The latest honor goes to Joaquin Phoenix, who is the youngest honoree of this particular citation ever. All people at the top of their craft, who have been working for decades, changing the art of cinema in their own way. In the past, I have honored such luminaries in cinema as Mike Nichols, Kevin Spacey and Roger Ebert.
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