what they say about him

It's a stunning, naked performance, a little frightening too, because it's impossible to spot the line between character and actor. From this, one would have every reason to suspect he might be the most dazzling of what is apparently a covey of natural actors.

Best of all is Joaquin Phoenix, demonstrating a heartbreaking simplicity and manipulability, and whose mantra of adoration for Suzanne -- that she's "clean" -- becomes a frightening example of the appeal of artificiality. 

As Jimmy, Joaquin Phoenix (brother of River) is so tremulous and fragile that his compelling character distracts from Van Sant's neat satiric architecture. 

One hopes that Phoenix is only playing a numbskull, and isn't actually one himself, for he sure is convincing. 

Eventually, she begins work on a video documentary about the wasted lives of three local teens, including a perfectly cast Joaquin Phoenix -- whose narcoleptic performance as her unlikely paramour provides a grotesque yet riveting mirror of his brother River's performance in My Own Private Idaho.

The most remarkable member of the cast is Joaquin Phoenix (brother to the late and lamented River). He's cast as one of a trio of grungy teens who Suzanne seduces into bumping off her hubby. Frankly, it's hard to tell how much Phoenix is acting here and how much he's just "being." In either case, his portrayal resonates -- raw, in many ways, but achingly real. There's one point in the film when he passionately yet pitifully describes Suzanne as "clean." It's so sad. So stupid. Yet Phoenix makes the audience believe he means it with every fiber of his hormonally-overwhelmed body and his none-too-functional brain.
 

This is a defining performance for Phoenix, who acknowledges his influences early on when he poses before portraits of Elvis and James Dean while inking in his own sideburns. 

Yes, the lead performances from Liv Tyler and Joaquin Phoenix are marvelous and resonant, but they deserve a better film in which to throttle their engines.

Phoenix follows his recent superb performance opposite Nicole Kidman, delivering another strong and wonderfully complex performance as Doug, an impressionable and rather unaffected youth who is desperately trying to establish his own identity. 

Joaquin Phoenix is less conventionally handsome -- more retiring and a little hangdog, with a scarred lip but hungry eyes.

Once again, O'Connor adroitly orchestrates first-rate performances from a young cast. Particularly notable is Joaquin Phoenix's sensitive, vulnerable portrayal of Doug. You would never realize that the actor, the younger brother of the late River Phoenix, is the same guy who played the spooky, drugged-up adolescent thug in To Die For.

Joaquin Phoenix, who succeeded his fine, lost brother River by showing a very different side of the family's talents as the ruined, seduced loser in ``To Die For,'' brings a brooding sensitivity and an awkward absurdity to Doug. Peering through his brow as his dark hair slants over his eyes, he projects something of the romanticism of Laurence Olivier in ``Wuthering Heights.''

With an A-list of actors, the movie has only two really memorable performances, Thornton and Phoenix, and both of them are rather small. Phoenix, last seen as the clean-cut Doug in "Inventing the Abbotts," makes Toby N.  Tucker a hilarious spoof of all those guys we knew in high school who wanted to beat up anything for the sake of looking tough. 

Obviously, Penn, with his multilayered portrayal of the freedom-craving Cooper confirms his position as one of the  finest actors of his generation, but Phoenix, remembered best as the teenage killer in To Die For, carves out a new dimension for himself as TNT, the teenage nut case. 

Joaquin Phoenix (brother of River), who appears only in a few scenes, works some gravity into the picture. He has two major sequences: one a videotaped plea from his prison cell, the other an eerie monologue, prompted by the arrival of an American visitor, in which Lewis begins to suggest signs of really cracking up. He's got a face for playing sensitive martyrs, but Phoenix gets past the goody-ness of Lewis, who originally stays behind in Asia because he wants to devote himself to helping endangered orangutans in Borneo. Inside this St. Francis of the monkeys, Phoenix finds a dazed, real character.

Though the direction is workmanlike, it's almost irrelevant; the script is so smart and the acting so uniformly strong (including Phoenix, who creates a remarkably sympathetic character despite limited screen time) that Ruben's bland style could easily be read as unobtrusive. 

Joaquin Phoenix's performance as Lewis is filled with the same fragile intensity that he brought to his role as Nicole Kidman's teenage lover in To Die For (one of the great underrated movies of the past decade).

Phoenix is a young actor who knows how to play vulnerable characters, so he grabs the audience's sympathy early on and then really pulls at the heartstrings. 

As touching as Anne Heche is, the emotional linchpin of the film is Phoenix, who creates a highly sympathetic and tragic figure with a minimum of screen time.

Joaquin Phoenix is stunning as Lewis, an innocent do-gooder who sees the gold in every soul. Just about every scene Phoenix is in takes your breath away; his intensity and blisteringly focused energy are downright dazzling. 
 

The performances are universally superb. Joaquin Phoenix, as the "innocent" victim, is the best that he has ever been. This is the role of a lifetime and Phoenix delivers. 

Joaquin Phoenix, as the out of his league guy panics brilliantly and comes to cope with the situations surprisingly well. 

Phoenix gives the very best performance of his  young career. His Clay is disarmingly subtle, investing a layer of psychological depth and smouldering sensuality into an already impressively accomplished film.

With his dark, deep-set eyes and dubious stare, his scarred upper lip and lank, greasy mop of hair, Joaquin Phoenix is an odd choice to star in a comedy. As Clay, Phoenix may manifest every so often a glimmer of intelligence that even his Neanderthal eyebrows can't hide, but that speaks less to the problematic nature of his casting than to the age-old truism that some  people are simply not as dumb as they look. 

As the main character, Joaquin Phoenix furthers the proof that he's becoming the de facto standard for how to play a less than brilliant character who gets caught up in circumstances way over his head. Nobody does it better than Phoenix, and although his character doesn't elicit much sympathy from the viewer, it's still fun to watch him squirm under the growing predicaments he faces. 

Joaquin Phoenix brings his wounded, sensitive demeanor to Clay, making him a sympathetic enough protagonist in spite of his flaws.

Phoenix and Vaughn bring out the best in each other as actors (if not as characters) and every part down to the tiniest bit is splendidly cast.
 

Joaquin Phoenix is gloriously weird and kinky as Welles's sometime assistant and Virgil-like guide through the hellish S & M world. 

Phoenix’s louche, quipping performance brings a welcome touch of humor to the picture.

Joaquin Phoenix is giving the movie's only lively performance.

Joaquin rocks. He’s a breath of fresh air and adds a sense of authenticity to this otherwise turgid waste of millions and millions of dollars.

Joaquin Phoenix, as a porno store clerk named Max, is the best of what starts out as an interesting gallery of lowlife characterizations. He has a haircut that gives him horns and a body shirt that makes him look as if he's got an elaborate Masami Teraoka tattoo.

Everything inthe film perks up a bit when Phoenix is on- screen.

Unfortunately, Joaquin Phoenix's Max California isn't in the film near long enough. He did such a great job and I hope this guy finds a big leading role soon. He carried his own so well with Nicolas Cage.

While Joaquin Phoenix has the role of the treacherous young Emperor, it’s a part that he runs with and from which he never lets go. Phoenix is devilishly hypnotic here, and is aided by other top-notch work by veteran British thespians Richard Harris and Derek Jacobi.

... Phoenix in an impressively evil performance ...

.As his foil, Commodus, Joaquin Phoenix gives a surprisingly superb performance, exuding jealousy, anger, and deviousness.

Phoenix also does very well as the evil Commodus who is a deeper and more complex villain than most blockbusters.

The reviewer also predicts that the film will finally elevate Joaquin Phoenix to stardom after spending his career in the shadow of his late brother River.

Also revealed top performances by Joaquin Phoenix, who puts on a Brit accent as the decadent Emperor Commodus.

... The one character who escapes this superficial treatment is Commodus, and thus, his scenes are almost always the most engaging, well-written, and emotionally interesting. Joaquin Phoenix is marvelous in the role, bringing an edgy despondence to a character who could easily have been little more than a comic-relief wuss. His petulance is more juvenile than prissy, and his displays of emotion are–at times–genuinely touching, even when they're menacing. Wracked with unquenchable envy and lifelong bitterness regarding his father's more substantial love for Maximus, Commodus is a pitiable overgrown child wearing an emperor's crown and wielding unlimited power. We can't stand the guy, but he's a lot more fun to watch than anybody else in the movie. In that sense, Commodus (as a character) and Phoenix (as an actor) are the story's saving grace. ...