So, remember when Joaquin Phoenix freaked out, quit acting and made an @$$ of himself on Late Night with David Letterman? Well, the documentary he was filming during that time (I’m Still Here: The Lost Years of Joaquin Phoenix) has been picked up, distributed and released…and the critics have already had their way with it. Ready to hear what the experts have to say?

E! Online calls the film an “alleged documentary,” saying it is “either a nightmarish depiction of a mid-meltdown narcissist, or a brilliantly deadpan put-on to make the late Andy Kaufman proud and Sacha Baron Cohen jealous.” While that sounds like something of an insult, the review goes on to call the flick “frequently hilarious,” which is far from all bad.

Whatever else the film may be, E! did not seem to take it too seriously, praising actors who appear in the film that were “in on the joke,” and Joaquin Phoenix for pulling off the “act.”

The Chicago Tribune wasn’t so amused. The film was given 0 stars and a headline which screams that it’s a “time-waster.” The verdict? “‘I’m Still Here’ is either all bull, no bull or partly bull.” The paper describes it as a “celebrity-implosion horror movie.”

CNN says the movie “paints a sad picture of Joaquin Phoenix,” claiming the movie is not a hoax but something “much sadder.” The review calls Phoenix a “convoluted narcissist” who exists “in a slovenly, rambling mash-up of self-pity and self-glorification.” The film is praised in the end of “unflinching honesty,” a “cautionary…case study of a celebrity self-destructively addicted to his own psychodrama.”

The project is called “surreal” by the LA Times and “no fun to watch.” “There is no way to know for sure what is true and what is not” in the film, but “maybe that was the point.” Kenneth Turan of the LA Times makes no bones about calling the movie a “hoax,” saying it feels like a “long-term piece of performance art.”

I’m Still Here opens in limited release this weekend.