Crazy/Brilliant

Or maybe just crazy. Let me quickly throw my two cents in on Joaquin Phoenix's pending career as a rap artist, which may or may not be a huge, intricately-planned publicity stunt.
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If Phoenix indeed has musical aspiritions, great! Whatever works for him. But I really hope he's not finished with film quite yet. I thought he was great in his two Oscar-nominated roles - jealous, murderous Commodus in Gladiator and country music legend Johnny Cash in Walk the Line - but I've just finished watching Two Lovers, and I think it's his best work yet. Phoenix drives the movie with a remarkable performance as a simple man who's as torn apart by his passions as he is driven by them. If for no other reason, give Two Lovers a watch to see Phoenix lay his soul bare.
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If Joaquin really is calling it quits with his acting career, I'll be disappointed. He's a screen presence that could give us wondrous performances to talk about for years to come.

TWO LOVERS

Screenplay by James Gray and Ric Menello
Directed by James Gray

Joaquin Phoenix
Gwyneth Paltrow
Vinessa Shaw

Premiere date: May 19, 2008 (Cannes Film Festival)
R for language, some sexuality and brief drug use.

Leonard Kraditor is a depressed and sometimes suicidal bachelor trying to pick up the pieces of his life after a bad breakup. Living with his parents and helping out at the family dry-cleaning business, Leonard finds himself in an existence that, save for his dabbling in black-and-white photography, is ordinary and stifling. His parents, mother Ruth and father Reuben, hope that a merger with a lucrative business - run by a friend of Reuben’s with a pretty daughter, Sandra - will spark a budding romance for Leonard. But their plan hits a snag when Leonard befriends Michelle, an alluring but emotionally needy blonde who struggles with her own desire for validation from a married man with whom she is having an affair. Leonard gets caught between filial obligation and a longing for escape, and sees in Michelle a partner for his troubled soul.