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My Own Private Idaho (1991)

Average rating

(59%)

Starring:	River Phoenix \| Keanu Reeves \| James Russo
Director:	Gus Van Sant
Studio:	Warner
Run time:	100 mins
Genres:	Drama
Languages:	English
Subtitles:	English
Released:	June 27, 2005

Two street hustlers from the Northwest, one abandoned as a child, the other rebellious scion of a wealthy and powerful family, travel as far as Rome, Italy in search of the former's missing mother.

Rating of 4 stars out of 5

A narcoleptic rent boy's doomed quest to find his mother is all the story director Gus Van Sant needs to explore the meaning of “home” and “family” in this unsettling tone poem. Using hallucinatory dream sequences, cinéma vérité confessions with male hustlers, artful sexual posing and impressionistic effects to hammer home the disturbed state of River Phoenix's mind, Van Sant also manages to extract a mould-breaking performance from Keanu Reeves (playing the object of Phoenix's affections). Audacious, controversial, directional, important and totally unique, you'll either love it or hate it. But see it!

Rating of 1 stars out of 5
Halliwell's Film Guide

A variation on Shakespeare's Henry IV, complete with a seductive but dangerous Falstaffian figure, which becomes a distracting device, lessening the film's impact.

Highest rated reviews

27 out of 33 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 5.0 stars
River's greatest performance

phoe66 from , 12th June, 2005

I highly recommend this film, one of Gus Van Sant's best features to date. And as usual for one of his films it is VERY arthouse, much of the dialogue is even shakespearian. But the main reason to see this film is because this was probably River Phoenix's most difinitive performance. He was perfectly cast in this role that was to be one of his last before his death. He even wrote the key scene in the film between his and Keanu Reeves character. Personally I think this is a must-see gay or straight.

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19 out of 25 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 5.0 stars
Crouchender - are you for real?

les reed from east London UK, 29th January, 2006

This film is first class for various reasons. As one of the last - and amongst the best of - River Phoenix' films, it should be watched on that point along . The performances of the two main characters? Well, Keanu Reeves comes over really as not too nice, and River Phoenix portrays 'lost' in a poignant and believable way. Critisisms from the likes of Crouchender, with his way with words (sad, when there are many thousands of words in the language to use), and the LA reviewer who didn't know it was ostensibly gay ('It didn't say so on the packet')leave one in doubt as to whether some reviewers have actually watched the same film as most of us. This film is to be recommended, particularly if you are gay; straight people in touch with life in the 20th/21st century should also find it captivating.As an aside, the haunting Slim Whitman soundtrack item is eerily appropriate. Watch it - it's worth it.

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12 out of 15 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 4.0 stars
A Nineties Classic

futurepurple from from Aberdeen, 21st July, 2005

Gus Van Sant's movie charting the lives of two young men coming to terms with their place in the world is a true nineties arthouse classic. River Phoenix's performance is a reminder of a great talent lost to innovative film making. This film is beautiful to watch in many ways, the colours, the characters and evocative soundtrack. The road scenes and camp fire scene are very reminiscent of Easy Rider and the poetic Shakespearean passages nod towards Five Easy Pieces. This is a must see as film studios rarely have the guts to produce this type of thing anymore.

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5 out of 6 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 3.0 stars
It could grow on you

TheDex from Cheshire, 2nd December, 2005

About 20 minutes into this film I nearly picked up the remote control and pressed 'stop'. My wife did give up in fact and went to bed. I'm quite glad I stuck with it, as although most of the weirdness remained throughout the film, at least it eventually had some purpose. In the beginning it was boiling up to be some perverse, voyeuristic take on the Oliver Twist tale with extra (weird) sex and nothing more; but it did develop quite nicely into a commentary on love, friendship and betrayal. I don't tend to go for 'art house' type films (which I guess this is) so mine may not be an informed critique, but be warned: it's not your average hollywood film, nor does it try to be in any way. there is some lovely cinematography and an interesting sound track, along with some excellent acting and strong characters. Give it a go if you're broad minded.

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My Own Private Idaho (1991)

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