Joaquin Phoenix

I just finished the movie, "Two Lovers". This is Joaquin Phoenix's "last film I'll ever make".

I will say one thing about the movie...

Watch the last three scenes. God bless Joaquin Phoenix. His eyes.

(I know movies aren't shot from the first scene to the last scene, but I think Mr. Phoenix knew those last three scenes would be his last. If eyes could tell a story...)

As a writer, therefore an artist, I am always striving to make things seem real but in a different way - a way you would never think it is as so. That's why so many people don't see the movies like the ones Mr. Phoenix would like you to see - You can't handle art. You can't handle moving "out of your life for a minute". You would be out of your comfort zone if you did.

Comfort in the United States is too easy. (That's why you don't see many foreign action movies.)

Take your boots, or your pissed off mood and throw them against the wall. Open yourself to art. Try diving into your fears and take a look at a foreign film for God's sake. Try to pass on last years action movies you "never got around to" like Hancock, and pick up something "you would never see in a million years". It might open your eyes, therefore your soul, and make you look at yourself in the mirror and say, "you look different today."

Or...

It might mean that you look at the person behind you, standing in line, and say to yourself, "what's his or her story?" Mr. Phoenix might be the one behind you. There are artists all around. You can tell because they are either dressed different than you, or they may not respond to your kind speak the way you would expect them to. They may back away, walk to their car, crank up their music, wait for a moment... and draw... or write what they saw, what they feel.

I ask you this...

Please don't treat them like they don't deserve to be what they are. Don't turn your back to them like they don't exist. Don't turn away over thirty six years of being their brother. Don't expect them to become something other than what they are, because it won't happen. Artists like Joaquin and I spend most of their times, not hiding or being ignorant of the importance of human contact, we just want to connect with others the best way we know how to. This is through art.

Look into Mr. Phoenix's eyes and tell me he doesn't exist. Mr. Phoenix is seen as a freak. He has been the butt of jokes since Letterman. He has been seen, or talked about, as a weirdo.

Let's look at the facts...

He didn't say he was going to kill himself or become, heaven's forbid, someone that wears a suit and a tie every day. Mr. Phoenix said he would concentrate his efforts on music. He chose to make this announcement in a way, many, or shall I say to the non-imaginative assholes, as weird and unworthy of a man. Oh so dreadful this man has become. I feel so sorry for him. It's music people!

The day we can tell others to do, or say what they should, the day of artistry is over.

I am an artist. Ignoring me won't change that fact. I won't wake up one day and become what you expect me to be. Don't lose sight of me and say that I am lost. I may be more awake than you.



This is not a phase. I'd rather stand in every line hoping Mr. Phoenix is standing behind me so I could share stories with him. I'll ask him if he's seen the latest independent movie or I'll talk about the music I've been listening too. I'll tell him about the characters I've created or the story I've placed them in so they could tell their story.

I only wish you, , would open your being and let me tell you what's important to me. I know Joaquin would.