Joaquin Phoenix Pops Off Out of the Ashes

A few weekends ago, I caught a 70mm presentation of The Master.  You can read my review and/or movie spoiler summary here.  I found it extremely effective and the work of a real craftsman.  It raised a lot of questions about faith, religion, and human relationships.  The technical components were truly outstanding and I imagine it as a film I wouldn't mind rewatching in the future.  I was with friends at the Landmark and realized that the last film I saw there with one of them was Two Lovers--Phoenix' last film before announcing his early "retirement" from acting.  He was excellent in Lovers playing a heartbroken young man confused by loving what he can't have and being loved but who he believes he doesn't want.  I called bullshit at the time on his hip-hop phase and he quickly became a joke of an artist with that hooey mockumentary symbolizing that phase of his life; the now infamous David Letterman interview encapsulating the whole debacle the best.  It took a few years, but the obviously conflicted Phoenix made his way back to his main profession seamlessly, delivering a tour de force turn in Paul T. Anderons's latest masterpiece like he had never been absent from the silver screen.  With The Master, as Freddie Quell, he took his acting to a whole new level.

TWC released the film five weekends ago and it set a record.  After Moonrise Kingdom opened to the highest-theater-average (not screens, as some outlets report) ever for a non-animated feature in a total of four theaters, a few months later, The Master surpassed that average by $17,000.  Moonrise went on to gross nearly $50M domestic.  With stellar reviews and Oscar buzz, success seemed imminent for The Master.  But, then TWC made an unusual choice.  Instead of gradually rolling out the film to a semi-wide expansion, it shot its load second weekend and reached out to almost 800 screens.  Instead of its per-theater-average slowly dropping, it drastically tumbled and never recovered.  At this point, the Annapurna production is likely to just eke past $15M.

Now, you might say for a thoughtful and somber film dealing with religion in a marketplace that caters to a less mature audience which prefers Liam Neeson's latest variation on Taken (hey, I loved The Grey) that isn't too bad.  One might say that Anderson's last film, the even more pensive There Will Be Blood, benefited from the late year release and Oscar traction which took it past $40M.  One might also say that the more violent tone played to its advantage for today's blood thirsty audience.  And, perhaps, also so, Anderson's fans all showed up opening weekend for The Master and it was all downhill from there, anyway you looked at.  Perhaps going semi-wide second-weekend maximized total profit.  Little to nothing has been said about it, which I find strange, only because it's pretty standard for platform releases of this vein to take weeks to build on word-of-mouth and milk critical response before going full-out.

Well, now, something is being said, and it's coming from one of the actors, Phoenix.  Except, understandably, it has nothing to do with it release strategy, and is actually quite in line with Phoenix' more aloof side and his fear of publicity.  While talking to Interview's (and Los Angeles icon) Elvis Mitchell (hat tip to AD), they speak at great length about Phoenix publicity stunt/art project with Casey Affleck.  I admit, he has me believing his intentions were genuine, even though it was partly an act.  The remarks that have been getting all the press, though, are Phoenix' response to Mitchell's question about the upcoming awards circuit.  He says of Oscar campaigning,

"I think it's bullshit. I think it's total, utter bullshit, and I don't want to be a part of it. I don't believe in it. It's a carrot, but it's the worst-tasting carrot I've ever tasted in my whole life. I don't want this carrot. It's totally subjective. Pitting people against each other . . . It's the stupidest thing in the whole world. It was one of the most uncomfortable periods of my life when Walk the Line was going through all the awards stuff and all that. I never want to have that experience again."

My initial reaction was that he was ungrateful and full of himself, but then, after actually reading the interview, and taking into consideration how measured he was (he disses an unreleased major motion picture he turned down due to its questionable racial politics, but then doesn't name drop), and considering the timing of the interview (four weeks after the release of The Master with sagging box-office and three months to go until nominations), it was a way of making the film relevant again and perhaps regenerate box-office interest.  Furthermore, if there was a backlash to his comments, there would be months to put all the fires out.  What he says isn't out of his character, but the release of the interview just seems, well, conveniently timed.  Many, including myself, immediately believed that this would hurt his chances of winning (assuming he is nominated).  But, considering that he was speaking from the heart and was perfectly honest, it's not like we've held him to a standard that he's not meeting, right?  Was this another example of Harvey Weinstein moving one of his pawns, knowing full-well what kind of handful he's dealing with?  Or was this just a "random" Interview?  Interesting how there have been two articles from The Wrap this week criticizing Annapurna productions and/or The Master, only to be followed by this interview, no?