But with the new film “I’m Still Here,” which was shot by his brother-in-law and fellow actor Casey Affleck in the two years following his near-triumph, Phoenix appears to show that fame has an incredibly destructive and debilitating side as well. Or does he?

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That central question – whether “I’m Still Here” is a straight documentary of an acclaimed movie star’s debilitating fall from grace, or if it’s a fake documentary shooting humorously poisoned darts straight at the heart of Hollywood – has been debated in Tinseltown and via gossip outlets for the past two years. The reason is that Affleck carried around a camera to follow Phoenix as he appeared to declare his retirement from acting due to artistic dissatisfaction and the pressures of fame, and instead embarked on a bizarre attempt at a rap career.

Perhaps the most infamous moment of Phoenix’s exploits during that time occurred when he appeared on the David Letterman show to plug his art-house film “Two Lovers,” and proceeded to mumble one or two word answers while hiding behind shades, and unkempt hair and beard worthy of the Unabomber. Footage of that train wreck – which was alternately funny and mortifying – is readily available (and highly recommended) on YouTube, and the incident caused many to wonder if Phoenix had lost his marbles or if it was a brilliant ruse with Letterman in on the joke.

“I’m Still Here” offers plenty of other cringe-worthy moments, many of which far surpass the Letterman incident. Along the way, Phoenix inarticulately spouts off the F-word about 6 million times in various combinations, is seen gleefully snorting coke and even ordering a pair of hookers online with some shockingly misogynistic comments along the way.

He stumbles into and out of encounters with the likes of Ben Stiller, Edward James Olmos and P. Diddy (or is it Diddy? Or back to Puff Daddy? Mr. Combs? – even Phoenix doesn’t seem to know in one of the film’s funniest scenes.) He also has a male friend who for no apparent reason is shown getting out of a tub and then dancing around fully naked, with nothing left to the imagination.

MAJOR SPOILER ALERT: Because “I’m Still Here” is hardly playing in any cities and is unlikely to expand to any sort of wide release, I’ll spill the beans on what I’ve figured out about the movie and whether it’s real or not. The end credits say “written and directed by Casey Affleck and Joaquin Phoenix,” while the people shown are listed as “Cast” and a couple of them are not listed as being themselves. Therefore, it can’t be real.

On the other hand, it is shot SO realistically that the idea of it being staged actually adds some level of brilliance to what otherwise would be an often-pointless or unpleasant exercise. This really looks like a home movie, which means the camera is often bouncy and sometimes even goes out of focus for a moment, and it’s played so deadpan that the biggest laughs come sporadically while watching.

But in thinking back and describing the incidents involved to others after the fact – especially the Ben Stiller scene, in which Stiller is frustrated by the fact that Phoenix thinks Stiller sent him the script to “Greenberg” for consideration in a supporting role rather than as the actual star and they break into an exasperated argument. And the scene where Diddy listens incredulously to the awful rap tracks Phoenix brings in grows in funniness the more I think about it.

Add it up, and it really is baffling to consider who this movie was made for. It’s certainly audacious, and perhaps even an indictment of excessive movie-star behavior and the Hollywood machine that fuels and perpetuates it. And its title seems to be a reference to another odd, but distinctly fictional, film about Bob Dylan from a couple years back: “I’m Not There.”

All told, even as it’s alternately funny and disconcerting, it is a bold piece of work in its own way. He put himself out there, against all possible conventional wisdom. But save it for Netflix, and only if you’re really curious to see just what the heck Phoenix was up to during those years in the wilderness (which he may still be in – he doesn’t seem to have any other projects lined up, and this might just kill any attempts to do one.)

But here we are and here you go:

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For some reason I’ve always been somewhat of an Ben Affleck fan, probably because he’s a decent screen presence and whenever appearing as himself on a talk show or documentary like “Project Greenlight,” he comes off as a genuinely decent guy with enough modesty left in him to still seem a little dazed by just how charmed of a life he leads. Self-awareness is as attractive a quality in an actor as it is rare. It also helps that he’s forever linked to Matt Damon, and by comparison anyone would look like a winner next to that classless, charmless, overrated piece of hardwood.

No one’s forgotten that Affleck’s relationship with Jennifer Lopez came thisclose to killing off his career and forever turning him into a Late Night punchline. And it wasn’t just the self-indulgent Gigli,” where the two obnoxious lovers tried to spin tabloid frenzy into box-office gold. Equally off-putting was the 24/7 Bennifer hype-machine that coincided with Affleck making one dreadful career choice after another (though “Paycheck” kinda rocks my B-movie loving world).

But you got to throw a little respect to a Hollywood lefty willing to appear live on “The O’Reilly Factor.” During the ‘04 election appearance, Affleck held his own and also managed to avoid coming off as the Imperial Limousine Hollywood Liberal. Damon, Clooney, and Garofalo should’ve studied the segment because it was a primer on how to champion an agenda without alienating your audience. Though it took place over six years ago, I still remember his good-natured tussle with O’Reilly because Affleck showed a little something you don’t see in many movie stars these days: character.

He would show even more a few years later with his decision to crash out of the searing gossip limelight and fruitless quest for super-stardom in order to get down to the serious business of honing his craft. The best result of the career reboot was 2007’s “Gone Baby Gone,” Affleck’s big screen directing debut (starring his incredibly talented brother, Casey) and one of the best films of that year. This is one of those cinematic rarities that not only gets better with each viewing but also perfectly captures the world in which its set thanks to beautifully crafted characters, pitch-perfect performances, and believably complicated relationships and emotions. Even the seasoned Clint Eastwood was unable to do his with ”Mystic River,” a similar story set in a similar place. The closing scene alone stays with you for days.

For a veteran director, “Gone Baby Gone” would be considered a milestone. For a first timer it’s a stunner, and with that — with what was likely his last shot at career resurrection, Ben Affleck is a Late Night punchline no more. 

We all root for the underdog, but this is something more — at least to me . On September 10th, with “The Town, we’re going to find out if Ben Affleck is the major cinematic storytelling talent his debut promised him to be, one of the few under the age of 60, or not.

Considering the dreadful state of filmmaking these days, all movie lovers should be rooting for this one.

There are some very important people in our country who have aligned themselves with Zinn. With his philosophy. With his view of history. With his view of the United States. And, with his strategy for getting his message into the public schools outside of the legal construct of School Boards and State Departments of Education.

They made a film of his book.  They walked the red carpet and they posed with the man they admired.  He was the inspiration for their film and they spoke of him glowingly, almost like he was a hero.  They began their film with him striding out alone onto a stage in a theatre full of admirers.  It was his way of taking a curtain call (a standing ovation, by the way) before the show even began.

“They” are the elite Hollywood stars who believed they gave themselves intellectual and cultural relevance by aligning themselves with the man who made it his life work to tear down the traditional American narrative.

And now, after his death, his legacy is to move that effort, subversively into the public school room despite the curricula established by democratic process. In other words, he wants teachers to teach his lesson plans and go against the wishes of “the people” whom he claims to admire so much.

Matt Damon and Josh Brolin gave this man a very glitzy and high profile platform on the History Channel.  And they celebrated his words as a wise, breath of fresh air:

“We didn’t want to hear the words of the people in the White House, we wanted to hear the words of the people picketing the White House.  The agitators, the anti-war protestors, the socialists and anarchists, in other words:  The people who gave us whatever liberty and democracy we have in this country.”

Forget, for a moment, about Mr. Zinn.  Forget that these are the tired and boring words of a bygone era. When shower-deprived protestors outside the Nixon White House were receiving whimsical admiration. When Leonard Bernstein feted the Black Panthers and John Phillips made people feel like everything was OK as long as it felt good.  This is not about Mr. Zinn.  He is old news.

This is about Matt Damon, Josh Brolin and all of the beautiful, well-paid actors who went out of their way to ensure that “The People Speak” was made, and distributed and now is available for your child to see in the school room you are paying for.  And, the lesson plans that are being brought into that class room, hidden in a teacher’s satchel so as not to get the attention of a school administrator.

As Big Hollywood has previously revealed, the Zinn Education Project has been designed for the sole purpose of providing teachers a means to bring Zinn’s biased and subversive version of American history into the public schools using subterfuge and (in Zinn’s words) “Guerrilla warfare.”

And now, it is time for the stars who reaped the benefits of appearing on behalf of the celebrated historian to own these ideas too.

Mr. Damon, you enjoy a level of prestige by making a “serious” film like “The People Speak”.  It gives you credibility in certain circles so that some people don’t regard you as just a dumb actor.  So, now let’s put that to the test.  Are you prepared to embrace your hero’s words?  We hold you accountable for the actions of the Zinn Education Project.  You must speak out and either denounce this subversion of the democratic process or you must embrace it.

Josh Brolin, you can’t just sit quietly under the guise of pseudo-intellectualism and reap the benefits of appearing so studied and so well read and so… concerned for the education of our children (as you expressed in so many interviews promoting this film) and not take a stand on Mr. Zinn’s advice to a future history teacher: 

“Don’t obey the rules.  Don’t be intimidated by what they tell you you must teach.”

Morgan Freeman, Viggo Mortensen, Marisa Tomei, Sean Penn, Rosario Dawson, Casey Affleck, Don Cheadle, David Straithern, Danny Glover, Kerry Washington, Benjamin Bratt, Sandra Oh, Jasmine Guy…  you are all part of this.  You went out of your way to be in this film.  We know because Director Chris Moore told us:

“ He went on to explain that as word spread about the project, the buzz grew and it became a cool thing to be associated with.  He would field calls from actors who wanted to get in and he would respond to them:  Go out and DO something.  Get involved, be an activist for a cause.”

So, you got your wish and you were in this film… this film that was the “cool thing to do.” Now that you are “cool” you get to own all the baggage that comes with being “cool” in the world of Howard Zinn.

His words are now your words.  Own them.  Unless, you’d like to tell us otherwise?

Well, tonight I watched a doozie on Starz, and I must say, I have to give Benjamin Geza Affleck props. I have made fun of him publicly (it’s easy!) but this guy picked good material and directed it wonderfully. His brother Casey is phenomenal.

It’s like nothing I expected with a name like “Gone Baby Gone.” I thought Susie had me watching a chick flick. It was anything but. Ed Harris and his wife Amy Madigan, the douchebags that crossed their arms when Elia Kazan was awarded a lifetime Oscar, co-starred. So does Morgan Freeman who was injured in a mysterious car crash in Mississippi last year. But Casey Affleck really emerges the savior of this creepy and gritty missing child crime mystery tale.

Whoever cast the Boston grotesques that littered the film, my hat’s off to you. These profoundly ugly people really created a backdrop that made you want to root for the kid not to be found and brought back to her natural origins.

If Ben is willing to rethink his love of Marxism and former neighbor, pal and history revisionist Howard Zinn, perhaps there is redemption for him. After seeing this film, I can’t help thinking he’s gotten a bum steer in this impossible town. He certainly has talent.