Joaquin Phoenix: He yam what he yam and that’s all that he yam

I’m not kidding about Popeye. As Quell, Phoenix goes through much of the movie with one eye squinked shut, his nose hooking over his twisted lip and toothless smile, talking out of the side of his mouth in a croaking mumble.  He even stands with his hands on the back of his hips, hunched slightly forward, with his chin cocked, the way Popeye sometimes did in the Fleischer cartoons.  In addition he has reduced himself to skin and bone, somehow taken several inches of his height, and willed every touch of leading man handsomeness out of his face. Often he looks like a young Darren McGavin. Other times he looks more like Abraham Lincoln than Daniel Day-Lewis in Spielberg’s upcoming biopic.  It’s a very weird physical performance, considering Quell is supposed to be irresistible to young women.---from my review of The Master, Caution: Genius at Work.