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| Joaquin Phoenix |
Among the many winners at last night's Academy Awards was Best Actor winner Joaquin Phoenix (Joker). For months following the release of the divisive film, he's been the category front-runner and in the process has excelled at giving some of the most memorable speeches. For as much as Brad Pitt made his run seem polished and charismatic, Phoenix chose to make his feel from the heart, addressing whatever issues came to mind. Who could forget his speeches detailing Australian forest fires, or the more recent backlash at The Academy where he called out their lack of diverse nominations? There is so much to take from Phoenix that it kind of makes up for the fact that I wasn't that impressed with his Oscar-winning performance. To me, Joker was mediocre and lacked any real substance that it was vying for. However, his win had a lot more power than simply recognizing a movie or an actor. Phoenix's win sort of brought a certain narrative regarding The Oscar Buzz to a close.
Back in September 2012, I had been a blogger for roughly four years and was still trying to figure out my niche. I would write reviews over on Optigrab in hopes that they would start a conversation with someone. I also had a critic job over at Cinema Beach that afforded me many great opportunities. Still, as a young film fan looking for something of substance to define myself, 23-year-old me found myself turning to something that at the time would lead to unexpected joys and connections that I never thought I'd have. It was because of how captivated I was at the trailer for director Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master, his first film in five years since the amazing achievement that was There Will Be Blood. I was taken in by Jonny Greenwood's score as Phoenix laid about on a ship, looking down at the world below. It spoke to me, making me want to see more. In fact, by some bold decision, I chose to start a blog over it.
The Oscar Buzz was born solely as a way to chronicle the trajectory of The Master. I loved writing about the film, discovering in the process what it took to make an Oscar campaign work. I remember writing those opinion pieces where I dived into every new piece of media like it was the greatest thing in the world. I remember that Elvis Mitchell interview in Interview Magazine where Phoenix notoriously compared Oscar campaigning to chasing a carrot on a stick. As much as I opened myself up to reviewing every other Oscar-nominated film, the 2012 run of The Oscar Buzz was pretty much about my love of The Master and, in an equally prominent narrative, my disdain for Silver Linings Playbook as a mediocre love story. Anyways, the roots were there and I had no expectation for what would happen, just that I needed to keep The Oscar Buzz going.
The year 2012 was a transformative one for me because of The Master. It wasn't just the experience of watching it and discovering a new favorite movie. It was exploring the fan theories that tried to make sense of the illusionary technique, all of which I would talk about on my former podcast Nerd's Eye View. So much of the film transfixed me. It was in the charismatic turn by Philip Seymour Hoffman, giving a dreamlike performance as a cult leader who you can't help but be drawn in by. His elocution was brilliant and the way he turned the processing scene into one of cinema's most intense set pieces is still a work of art. Then there's Amy Adams, who still remains high on my list of actors in desperate need of an Oscar win. Her subdued magic was hard to ignore, and the feeling of watching her eyes turn black is something that I remember blowing my mind at the time. What was this film even about?
Then there was Phoenix himself, starring as Freddie Quell: a wayward sailor looking to find some balance in his chaotic life. I remember being taken in by the performance, as if I had just discovered the concept of acting in the way he scowled, holding up his back with his arms, or even panicking to the point of breaking a toilet in a prison cell. So much of the performance felt like art, and I couldn't imagine anyone doing better. It's why for a while I disliked Daniel Day-Lewis winning Best Actor that year, though Phoenix's stubbornness is just as much to blame for his failure. Still, I loved Freddie Quell and kept looking further into the performance to see something new.
I had no idea what to expect from Phoenix in the future, only what we had seen in the past. In what is likely to look more antiquated with time, I still remember the time of his "mental breakdown" and how director Casey Affleck's I'm Still Here might have been a real story. To me, the 2010 documentary was another antagonistic art piece that saw the actor pulling an Andy Kaufman on Hollywood with a fascinating deconstruction of media obsession. The Master felt like the start to redemption, though how far could that possibly go? At the time The Master felt dangerous because who knew if this man had a future, or if this brief appearance would be rare and he would fade back into obscurity. I cherished it because of how much of a shooting star it felt, his first fiction narrative since Two Lovers four years ago. You wanted it to grow, but given his pithy behavior with the press, it was just as likely that we were witnessing the end of a career, faded before its time.
I still remember his look of discomfort as they announced Best Actor at that year's Oscars, where Day-Lewis inevitably beat him. You understood why he squirmed. He's even commented in his 2020 acceptance speech for Best Actor that he's been hard to work with. As much as The Master remains his definitive performance of his recent career, you can see why he probably was more of an unpleasant man at the time. It's in that Interview Magazine interview. Even coming off of I'm Still Here, he seemed prickly. Still, I became fascinated with this performance and wanted to see it to the bitter end, watching it crash as nothing more than a nomination. Because of him, I was able to see why it was important to campaign with a memorable, positive angle. His "renaissance" of sorts didn't have the allure of later Best Actor winner Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club), who had the added benefit of just being fun to be around.
Now, seven years and one Oscar later, Phoenix seems less like a fluke and the promise of Anderson taking five years between projects was proven farcical. In fact, Phoenix was back the following year with Best Picture nominee Her and had buzz with The Immigrant. As much as I began to expand my net beyond these two men, I still was thankful to be around for the entire growth of Phoenix, who is one of the most charismatic actors of his generation. This whole decade has proven it, as films like You Were Never Really Here, Inherent Vice, and The Sisters Brothers showed that he was capable of flexing his strong, shy, awkward archetype into any fit and make it into something beautiful. Meanwhile, Anderson has produced some of his best work with Phantom Thread and the music doc Junun.
In a lot of ways, The Oscar Buzz has been a quiet rattling of Phoenix's renaissance alongside seven years of Oscar coverage for every other film imaginable. In that time I listened to every Oscar-nominated song and score, did pieces on every Best Picture winner, and have chronicled the rise of A24. There are so many opportunities that this blog has given me, and it's largely an expansion of knowledge regarding why the film industry matters both on an emotional level, but on a business one as well. I can't claim to know the ins and outs, but I do know enough of the politics to see patterns that once held, understanding why several films won. I'm not really the angry young man threatening to throw my TV out the window because The Social Network lost. I'm somewhat more rational, finding acceptance in the idea of even being nominated. I think that is a tool that has largely been ignored by passionate fans on an annual basis. While it's great to win, having your name etched into a Best Picture line-up is a historical document you can't take away. It's powerful stuff.
There is some tragic irony to Phoenix's second nomination in The Oscar Buzz's existence being one of the most underwhelming titles out there. The story focused on a man full of mental illness and neglect who has a condition that causes him to laugh all of the time. Much like Renee Zellweger in Judy, it was an example of Phoenix elevating bad material to something worth watching. You were curious because Phoenix was an artisan. He didn't just make paycheck movies anymore. He worked with Spike Jonze and Lynne Ramsay, not The Russo Brothers. It felt like a big deal to see him do Joker because there had to be SOMETHING there that clearly wasn't there in any offers he got for Doctor Strange (true story). True, it was more of a Martin Scorsese pastiche with refried Sidney Lumet political views, but it had clown make-up on it. Some found it to be the best comic book movie (based on total Oscar nominations, the argument still can be made) while others took grievance at it being latched onto by toxic, misogynistic people who complained that Parasite wasn't a social commentary on par with comic book lore.
To go back to a pre-established point, sometimes you just have to accept the title over the meaning. Joker is one of the least-deserving Oscar films of the year. However, where I mention that I am thankful to see my films nominated, I guess I have to be thankful to see my favorite actors win. I can't deny that I felt that for Anne Hathaway (Best Supporting Actress - Les Miserables) or Brie Larson (Best Actress - Room), and now I get to feel it for the man who inspired me to launch a blog. It's not like I can even complain about his speech as being cynical and empty. Like his project choices, there is something that feels fascinating about every decision he makes. By getting up and talking about the environment and how he is thankful to have The Academy's forgiveness reflects a man who is not able to fit neatly into a box. He has had his problems, and this is in some ways forgiveness for his past mistakes. Because they didn't let The Master become a fluke, he was able to eventually win for a performance that connected with the social zeitgeist. It may not be the best, but when protests in Asia have had people dress up as Phoenix's Joker, it shows how cinema gets out there.
While I will always wish that Phoenix won for The Master and maybe got two or three more along the way, I still feel thankful to know that he made it to this point, that we're capable of seeing him become an Oscar winner. Much like how Al Pacino failed to win for The Godfather series and won instead for Scent of a Woman, these things just have to be accepted. They can be nitpicked how they could've been done better, but ask yourself: would you want your favorite actors to not be Oscar winners, especially if you're as fascinated by the group as I am? I'm fine with it, honestly. While I don't know that I will turn to the film ever again and say "Yeah, that was a great decision," I can at least accept it as this weird ratchet in the gears type of performance that pushes comic book movies into something more creative than triumphant cinema.
In September 2012, I started a blog with the hope of seeing Joaquin Phoenix get an Oscar. In February 2020, the moment has happened. It feels like the end of an era for me, and it feels bizarre. I'm not sure that I ever expected Phoenix to win. He felt like Amy Adams: perpetually the second-place finish. In some ways, you need those open-ended narratives to keep you going, and all I can do is shrug and hope that Phoenix gets another nomination soon. Still, I want to personally thank him for opening up my eyes to how The Academy Awards and different elements of the film industry work by encouraging me to look at the world and history of film to find something meaningful. The Oscar Buzz is no longer just about The Master, but if you look close enough you'll notice it as the seed where this all sprouted from. I am thankful to continue doing this, and I hope that next season continues to make for excellent coverage.
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