Pas de panique, il n'ira pas loin à pied

Gus Van Sant directs this beautiful film about John Callahan, alcoholic turned cripple turned cartoonist.

The heart of this story is truly inspiring. It is deep down a story about the darkest corner of the human spirit, and how through faith we can overcome anything.

Van Sant is not a very flashy director. However there is a few questioning choices he made with this film. First off, the structure of the movie is very non linear, especially at the start. This creates a rather jarring experience, and it often results in lessening the impact of what is shown. The film gets more straightforward in the second half and it picks up big time.

Another thing that is odd is the manifestation of the protagonist's mother. The effect they chose to fade her face into the frame is simply bad. It just looks awful and the whole scene feels like a stain on the film. Also the film is filled with these weird zoom in shots that looks unappealing. It is something to get use to. It's not that it's a big deal, but it looks strange, and I fail to see the purpose of these zoom in and out.

Beside these few issues, Van Sant mostly lay low and let the actors act, and they do it beautifully. At this point it is not a surprise to anyone, but Joaquin Phoenix is fantastic in this. He elevates the material to tear jerking and meaningful. He just becomes the character. Between this and You Were Never Really Here, he is guaranteed to be nominated.

Jonah Hill proves again that he is a true artist with a single scene near the ending of the film. Before that he owns every scene he has, especially the first time Callahan meets him. He has this sincere goodness and nonchalance about his character. He really nails it.

Jack Black is also great in the film. At first it seems that he is just playing his usual funny dude character, but later in the film he has a great emotional scene. Although it is very short he just shows a whole new side of him.

Rooney Mara's performance is also great, but her character is somewhat problematic. When she first arrives, she is just like an angel, beautiful, caring and funny. It is just hard to believe that she actually exists in this universe. I understand that she helps greatly Callahan to keep faith, so that might be why she is so pretty, and charming and innocent, but it still feels like she is out of place in the film. Not her fault though.

Even though the first half suffered a bit from weird editing and jumping around a lot in time, the second half made up for it. It is more than a simple drama, it becomes meaningful. The pain that Callahan feels is so relatable. After watching him go through everything he did, and knowing that he truly existed, it just inspired me to be better. To conquer my own pain and torment and to just accept who I am as a person. It is not often that a film provoke such an emotional reaction out of me. Also I nearly cried twice, which is even more unusual.

Overall this is a great movie that dealt brilliantly with the theme of overcoming our pain and suffering no matter how insurmountable it seems.

Rating: 8/10

Like an AA meeting: disjointed, funny, moving, boring, inspiring and, ultimately, rewarding.

The actors are mesmerising. Joaquin Phoenix recovers nicely here from his misstep with Mary Magdalene but it's Jonah Hill as the sage gay sponsor who steals the film with a subtle portrayal imbued with nonchalant spirituality. Rock stars Kim Gordon (Sonic Youth) and Beth Ditto (Gossip) make appearances and Ditto turns in a solid gold performance that left me hoping she'll continue down the acting path.

Despite being overlong and bogged down with unnecessarily complicated timeline, the overall film moved me and made me glad I got past the clunky title and misleading rom-com poster.

The most impressive thing about this film is the acting, most notably Jonah Hill in a masterful supporting performance.

Wow, what a compelling and dramatic performance by Jonah Hill ....and of course Joaquin Phoenix. I come to expect great and unique performances in everything that Joaquin does and am never disappointed, but what really stood out to me in this film was the performance of Jonah Hill. From what the announcer at Sundance 2018 described as a "chameleon like character", Jonah really drives it home with his portrayal as Donnie, the AA friend and sponsor to Joaquin's true life character John Callahan.

Much like the comics that John Callahan has made over the years, this movie is filled with a lot of humor, despite the struggles he faced throughout his life, including his addiction to alcohol. Donnie is there as a source of inspiration and guidance to John in helping him overcome these obstacles while also providing some comic relief. Jonah's performance really gives depth and insight to Joaquin's character as he struggles to pick up the pieces of his shattered life and continues on his journey to make some of the most outlandish and though provoking comics of his time.

Overall, I highly recommend watching this, as I feel we can all relate the context on some level. It will be quite the tear jerker towards the end and also allow you to empathize with both Donnie and John as they help each other overcome life's many hardships.

I watched this at home on DVD from our public library. My wife lasted 20 minutes, she left during the scene Callahan was vomiting into a water trough. As it turns out that was the very low point of the story.

This movie is based on the true story of John Callahan, general slacker who drank too much and at age 21 was rendered wheelchair bound in an auto accident during a night of heavy drinking. The internet tells us:

John Michael Callahan (February 5, 1951 - July 24, 2010) was a cartoonist, artist, and musician in Portland, Oregon, noted for dealing with macabre subjects and physical disabilities.

Joaquin Phoenix is very good in the role of John Callahan. During his recovery, and gaining partial use of his arms and hands, began drawing cartoons just for the fun of it. One of them was a wheelchair and the caption was the title of this movie. He became noticed and got a regular gig as a cartoonist.

The movie also shows a lot of the AA meetings he attended and his gradual recovery to sobriety. Good movie of a difficult subject. Not all viewers will enjoy it.