‘I’m Still Here’ – Hip hop hoax … or a Phoenix reborn?

After hearing actor Joaquin Phoenix rap one thing is crystal clear – he shouldn’t give up his day job.

Yet that’s precisely what the mercurial actor did in 2008 – abandon acting for a hip hop career. Our media savvy culture didn’t buy it for a minute.

Which brings us to “I’m Still Here,” the new documentary capturing Phoenix’s career zig zag – or the actor’s bid for an Andy Kaufman-sized scam.

You won’t find the answer here, which makes reviewing the documentary a chore. It’s equally tough to endure the film for long stretches, but patient souls will be partially rewarded as soon as the actor’s infamous appearance on “The Late Show with David Letterman” hits the screen.

“I’m Still Here” opens with footage of a young Joaquin Phoenix standing on a small cliff, leery of jumping into the water below. We then meet the adult Phoenix, a celebrated actor who’s grown weary of his profession. He’s tired of all the nonsense surrounding the art of filmmaking, and he feels like his talent is diluted by the many layers required to make a motion picture.

So he announces he’s leaving show business for … a hip hop career. But his rapping skills are sub-part, to be kind, and he doesn’t have any musical charisma to fall back on.

But he’s JP, darn it, which means he has the kinds of connections that can get him live gigs and even a meeting with Sean Combs, the prolific hip hop guru.

In between bad rapping, Phoenix complains about acting, dumps on his sad entourage – no Johnny Drama here, to be sure – and flaunts his pale, puffy physique. He also does drugs on camera, which given his brother River Phoenix’s fatal overdose is either in horrible taste or the sign of a demented soul. And we haven’t even gotten to the part where the actor-turned-rapper orders up hookers via the Internet.

Amused yet?

None of the above is played for “Borat” style laughs, and the real humor emerges deep into the film when Letterman dresses Phoenix down to the size of a thimble.

One’s reaction to “I’m Still Here” may hinge on the reality of the situation. Either it’s a characters study of a deeply flawed man or a hoax that took on epic proportions. Director Casey Affleck finds gravitas in poorly lit sequences and gratuitous male nudity, but even the film’s most shocking moments draw neither laughs nor pity. They just exist … to be forgotten at the earliest convenience.

Phoenix isn’t a captivating enough soul to make us care whether “I’m Still Here” is real or more reality show drivel. He’s not a great actor, merely an eclectic one capable of the occasionally sterling turn (“Walk the Line”). He’d rather mumble than talk, and his observations about life and art don’t merit any sort of dissembling.

“I’m Still Here” is a curiosity all right, but the public at large may find it one train wreck that’s far too easy to ignore.

(Photo: “I’m Still Here” chronicles the career change of actor Joaquin Phoenix. Magnolia Pictures)

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