Make it stand out.

The Wheels don’t slow him down in

Don’t Worry He won’t get Far on Foot

by Kathia Woods

It’s a story about the life of John Callahan. Gus Van Sant wrote the screenplay as well as direct this biopic. Joaquin Phoenix plays the title role and Jonah Hill his spiritual advisor.
The story depicts how Callahan’s alcoholism led to him being paralyzed and ultimately opening his career as a cartoonist. The movie is under the Amazon Studios umbrella and made its debut at Sundance. Jack Black portrays Dexter the driver responsible for his paralysis. This is a story about redemption. A story about a bad incident helping an individual face his demons. Phoenix is a real-life complex man, but his complexity makes him a great actor. He gives you range in this story, however, there are some challenges. Such his character John Callahan dealing with his disability. We don’t receive an honest opening on how he’s facing the fact that his alcoholism is the cause of his disability, not Dexter. The fact that he’s been using his childhood trauma to justify his drinking. Yes, one’s mother abandoning is horrible however it doesn’t excuse the disregard he shows towards life, and loyalty. He finds moments of clarity by joining AA. That’s the place he meets Donnie Green played by Johan Hill. Hill is a gay recovering spiritual alcoholic that invites Callahan to join his sponsor group. In that group, he’s interacting with characters that he may not otherwise talk too. Beth Ditto as Reba doesn’t pull any punches when he doesn’t share in group therapy. The rest of the group is made up of Mark Webber as Mike a vet, Ronnie Adrian as Martingale a homosexual revolutionary poet, Kim Gordon as Corky a suburbanite and Udo Kier representing the straight male. Rooney Mara portrays Phoenix’s love interest. She’s Swedish, blond, alluring and somehow finds Callahan sexy. There was an opportunity to show intimacy between an able-bodied person and a disabled person, but it lasted no more than five minutes.
Joaquin Phoenix is stellar however I find myself asking questions such as are his disability as well as the alcoholism being dealt with at the same time. Why don’t we get a better understanding of his childhood or why his mother abandoned him? Also, how did his art help him recharge? Was he a regular cartoonist at a paper or did he publish a book?
This movie gave us great performances but left so many unanswered questions.
On a scale of 1 through 10 I give it a 7 because of Joaquin Phoenix
Diversity a 3 because we had one black guy and 2 gay characters