Is This An Elaborate Wind-up?

Are we all getting punked here? Is this Joaquin Phoenix doing a Sacha Baron Cohen on us and creating a character designed to ridicule our collective gullibility? For those of you living under a rock, let us explain. Joaquin Phoenix has retired from acting to take up a career in music. Not just any music but hip-hop the genre with the highest potential for embarrassment. He also seems to have taken up a career in not shaving and likes to spend his spare time by acting like he's on drugs. We would never be so bold to suggest he's actually on drugs.

But here's the kicker, this week sees the news that Casey Affleck will be making a documentary about Phoenix's attempts to launch a music career. Hmmmm. Suspicious, says he, stroking his chin and arching his eyebrow. Maybe we are completely wrong and maybe this is just another celebrity believing his own hype and going batshit crazy, or maybe this is some meta-viral marketing. Maybe this is gonna be The Blair Witch of comic mock documentaries, where we all believe it's true and we all believe that the comedy God's are just that kind to have Phoenix fall off the stage at the end of his performance. It all seems a little too perfect.