Joaquin Phoenix: The New Mickey Rourke

I don't usually comment on non-movie subjects in this blog... but WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON WITH JOAQUIN PHOENIX LATELY!?!?!? First, he quits acting for life. Then he pops up doing freestyle rap songs in odd clubs (with his performances being filmed by Casey Affleck, no less). Now, he shows up on David Letterman looking like a rock & roll Osama Bin Laden, and talking less articulately than a grade school student. I smell one of two things. Either this is some quasi art project (remember how Affleck is documenting him), and Phoenix plans to show us all how foolish we were for taking this kind of stuff seriously. It could also be some thing else: Joaquin could the next talented young star to really fall off the face of the planet. He's had trouble with substance and alcohol abuse, and I fear that he's heading for Mickey Rourke-like career destruction. Rourke has taken decades to rebuild himself, but with Phoenix's history (his brother, River, died of substance abuse), I'd like to hope he'll be more careful in the future.

P.S. It's a shame that Phoenix has chosen to perform this charade as he's trying to promote Two Lovers. From all accounts, I've heard it's a wonderful film, but small films like these have trouble finding audiences when its star is up to antics like this. If I were an investor or producer, I wouldn't be too happy.