Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot (2018)

1. Badly. "Don't worry he won't get far on foot" -- cause he's in a wheelchait ..gettit? -- Ordeal to sit through. Not even painful, just a draggg ...Joaquin Phoenix sits it out patiently in the latest Van Sant look at the miserable side of life.

Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot is a surprisingly ordinary biopic given the esoteric creative forces behind it. Gus Van Sant, Joaquin Phoenix and John Callahan all made a name for themselves standing against the tide artistically, but the most striking thing about Don’t Worry is how normal it is – which in itself is a little distracting.

Van Sant plays it fairly straight behind the camera, leaving his principle cast to add flavour with their performances (and wiggy antics). As you would expect, Joaquin Phoenix delivers an excellent turn as Callahan, but the film loses all immersion whenever it reminds you he’s playing a man in his twenties.
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One can easily imagine what such a story could have done in the hands of a less sensitive filmmaker than GVS: an avalanche of good, sticky feelings, an incessant display of cabotinage. But Van Sant evades sentimentalism from the outset by concentrating on very concrete details, for example, when they first meet, Callahan's whispers to Annu (surreal fantasy of Nordic beauty, illuminated by a perfect Rooney Mara). or the crazy ride of John Callahan's electric wheelchair.