Movie Poster Monday: I'm Still Here

I'm not going to talk about the Yogi Bear poster, partly because other people have already said everything I want to say and more eloquently, but mostly because I still want to pretend it isn't happening. So this week I'm switching up the format a little and presenting a movie poster I don't like.

This poster for I'm Still Here is basically a Vampire Weekend album cover. It's kind of blah and generic, and it doesn't tell us anything about the film (also I hate the typography). It seems like it's relying on our memories of the past couple of years to do the work for it, and for me, that's not a great tactic. Before this whole experiment, I was a huge fan of Joaquin Phoenix and I'm sure I will be again one day, but after a few months of his rapper shtick, I couldn't stand him. That's what this poster reminds me of: the weariness I felt at the end, not the perplexed but giddy curiosity we all had in the beginning.

By all means, show an image of the rap show when he fell off the stage or the Letterman interview. As overplayed as they were, they were cultural landmarks, and they would be a prompt for what to expect in the film. Basically, this poster bugs me because it sets up two possibilities: either the movie is as pretentious as the poster, or it isn't and this publicity campaign hasn't been planned well. Although my faith in Joaquin Phoenix has waned, I still believe in Casey Affleck so I'm hoping the latter is true.