DON’T WORRY, HE WON’T GET FAR ON FOOT

US, 2018, 113 minutes, Colour.
Joaquin Phoenix, Jonah Hill, Rooney Mara, Jack Black, Beth Ditto, Olivia Hamilton, Udo Keir, Kim Gordon, Emilio Rivera.
Directed by Gus van Sant.

Every new film by writer-director, Gus van Sant, is something of an event. Over almost 30 years, he has produced some offbeat films, as well as some conventional films, but focusing on characters and the human condition. This is no exception. It is based on the life of cartoonist from Oregon, John Callahan (1951-2010).

Of interest, the star of the film was meant to be Robin Williams, to whom there is a dedication at the end of the film. Interestingly also, the star, Joaquin Phoenix sometimes looks made up like Robin Williams, also with some of the angles at which is photographed.

But, this is definitely a Joaquin Phoenix film, an intense and powerful performance with playful and ironic moments. There is a very strong supporting cast led by Jonah Hill as a wealthy facilitator of AA meetings, Rooney Mara as a Swedish airlines flight attendant, and quite a number of very effective character actors, especially in the AA meetings sequences.

The screenplay is something of a collage of events in John Callahan’s life. It is also something of a jigsaw puzzle, the audience watching, observing, reflecting, and putting the pieces together – and they have not been presented in chronological order.

The film opens with an AA meeting, some powerful stories being told about people’s alcoholism and their experiences. John Callahan eventually comes to a meeting. However, his background is working in Oregon, moving to LA for better opportunities, a hard-drinking man, adopted but with an obsession about knowing more about his birth mother, but also being shown on stage, in a wheelchair, and a literary event in his honour.

And so, the audience begins to put the pieces together. There are initially quite a few flashbacks, especially to John Callahan making acquaintance with a hard-drinking LA type, Dexter (Jack black in a very Jack black kind of role – which does contrast finally when Dexter appears later in the film, not typical Jack Black) which leads to a bout of drinking, driving, an accident which leaves John Callahan paralysed from the chest down.

So, there are many sequences of Callahan in physical rehabilitation, especially visited by Annu, Rooney Mara, and showing life confined to a wheelchair. But, there are also the AA meetings where we meet the initial group, learn more about them, see them interact. However, the revelation is Jonah Hill as Donnie, wealthy, a gay man, ill. It is often fascinating to watch Donnie in his interactions with the group, very honest, very challenging, checking humour and its appropriateness or not, guiding people along the 12 steps. John Callahan gets to know him, to like him, to accept the challenges that Donnie makes, especially in the later steps in acknowledging some belief in the transcendent or God as well as the apologies to all the people hurt.

Callahan does this in a very moving way – and, of course, Donnie urges him to forgive himself.

The creative thing is that John Callahan can draw, even with his hands almost clenched with disability. He develops his own style – and there is a continued cartoon he draws in trying to illustrate human evolution. His cartoons certainly have black humour – and, while universities and other presses give him a column, he receives quite a number of hostile and aggressive letters of complaint.

This is a story of human hope, a seemingly hopeless man and prospects for his life, even before his being put for life in a wheelchair, but with support and solidarity, finding himself and a creative outlet.

One of the final sequences of hope is John Callahan in his chair going along LA Street where previously he had fallen out of his chair and a group of youngsters, skateboarding, putting back on his chair even while holding their noses at his catheter. He goes back to join them to share in their play. The song over the final credits was composed by John Callahan and is sung by him.

1. The title, the joke? John Callahan, his life, cartoons, black humour?

2. A true story, 1951 to 2010. The focus on the 1970s into the 1980s? Oregon, Los Angeles? Homes, bars, parties, the streets, hospital, rehabilitation? AA? The lecture hall? The boys on the skateboards? The musical score? The final song sung and composed by John Callahan?

3. The director, his career, interest in issues, human life and values? Hard lives, addictions, coping, bonding, recovery?

4. Joaquin Phoenix in the central role? Originally for Robin Williams – and his looking like Williams at times? The strong cast?

5. The structure, the introduction to the group at the AA, setting the tone, the human voices? The lecture, his humour? In the wheelchair? John Hallahan’s life, flashbacks? His jobs, Oregon, moving to LA, the encounter with Dexter, the hard drinking, the parties, the reckless driving, the accident, his life changed? An expert in surviving and disappearing?

6. The hospital, the doctors, the interns visiting, the cold analysis? The treatment, the machines? The diagnosis? The visit of Annu and her care, conversation? His going home, Tim as his carer? The work, bullying Tim, Tim saying he was not a slave, their agreement to work together?

7. The Dexter flashback, Jack Black, his style, the responsibility – and the contrast when John went to meet him years later?

8. Going to the meetings, Donnie in charge, the group? AA, the style, storytelling, the honesty, the 12 steps? Donnie and his background, facilitating, his wealth, talking, direct, with the jokes for appropriate or not? His being demanding in his questions?

9. Donnie, rich, ill, dying of AIDS? Directing the group, available for phone calls, conversations with John, taking over the steps, supervising him, encouraging him?

10. The group, Corky, middle-aged, talking about her boredom, valium, walking naked, sent for treatment? The German and his story, sensitivities? Mike, quiet, his outburst about work and the challenge about the lack of women in his work and life? Reba, large, 20, her heart condition? The black gay poet and his poems, reciting them? Tim in the background, his religious concerns? Donnie and his questions about their motivations?

11. The effect on John, the years passing, meeting Annu again, the issues of sexual activity, the relationship with her, love?

12. The critique of bureaucracy, watching financial support, Suzanne and her application of the rules, John searching for his mother and their not being allowed to give information?

13. John and the early steps, telling his story, his mother, her background, finding her name?

14. Donnie, his believe in something beyond, calling it Chucky, John and his joke about Raquel Welch? But having a sense of the hand on his shoulder? Trust? Moving to some kind of belief in the transcendent? Donnie’s insistence on asking him why he did various things, the drinking, with Dexter, getting into the car?

15. The step and the apology, John’s list, going to the teacher who recognised his potential, contacting his adoptive parents, the flashbacks to his brothers? Apologising to Suzanne?

16. Seeking out Dexter, Dexter’s life, not coping, the conversation, the apology?

17. The apology to his imagined mother and her image?

18. Donnie insisting on the apology to John himself?

19. The role of the cartoons, the awkwardness of his hands, drawing them, the different styles, his concern about human evolution? The jokes, the Ku Klux Klan, interviews, publishing them, the letters complaining? Getting some finance, something worth doing in his life?

20. The final talk, the audience appreciation, everybody there?

21. The climax, the early scene of his fall from his chair, the kids on the skateboard, the urine and the smell, yet their helping him? And his returning to enjoy play with them?