Continuing Kick

Our Joaquin Phoenix Kick continues. Jason and I went to the video store on Friday, and I tried to locate the movies that I remember him being in. I found quite a few and asked Jason which one he wanted. He looked at them and said, “Oh, let’s just get all of them.” Jason even wants to rent “Space Camp” and “Parenthood” from back when Joaquin was “Leaf Phoenix.”

Here’s what we’ve found: It is a mark of a truly gifted actor when viewers will keep watching a terrible movie just to see what happens to the said actor’s character. This phenomenon has occurred with several movies so far. “The Yards.” Yawnersville. Markie Mark Wahlberg seems to be trying out a sullen confused young man approach, but I think he’s just on Benadryl. I don’t know where Charlize Theron picked up her New Yawk accent, but it is truly awful. Joaquin’s character is actually the secondary character “bad” guy, but we found ourselves rooting for him anyway. “8MM.” Yuck. Yucky yuck yuck. Truly disturbing movie. Again, Joaquin is a secondary character—a porn store clerk. He gets killed a half hour prior to the end of the movie. At first I was in denial. “Maybe that knife didn’t slice all the way through his throat…” Fat chance. But then I was furious. “Well, who cares what happens now?!” I yelled. Jason decided that we had to finish it.

Then last night we finished up “Clay Pigeons.” I liked it, but then, I love dark comedies. Lotta sex, lotta corpses. We started “Quills” last night (about the Marquis De Sade), and judging from the first fifteen minutes, we are in for a doozy. So it is appearing to us that dear Joaquin when through a very dark phase in the late 1990’s.