My Own Private Idaho (1991)

Directed by Gus Van Sant. Starring River Phoenix, Keanu Reeves, William Richert, Chiara Caselli, Udo Kier, Michael Parker, James Russo, Rodney Harvey, Grace Zabriskie, Flea. [R]

Gus Van Sant’s follow-up to Drugstore Cowboy is another street-level study of lost souls on the edge. Here, Phoenix is understated but riveting as a narcoleptic male hustler in love with his best friend (Reeves) and dreaming of finding his mother and recapturing a piece of his lost childhood. Based in part on Shakespeare’s Henry IV, with Reeves’ mayor’s son representing Prince Hal and the Fagin-esque mentor (Richert) to the local street pros taking the place of Falstaff; the language might not specifically be the Bard’s, but sometimes the syntax and rhythm of the words sounds like a stylistic facsimile. Intelligent and unsentimental, if a little too shapeless in strategy (the segment of the film when Reeves more or less takes over doesn’t quite gel with the rest of Phoenix’s surreal, haunted journey). A milestone in the indie New Queer Cinema movement and, sadly, Phoenix’s last great performance. Title taken from the B-52’s New Wave classic, “Private Idaho,” but the song isn’t used in the movie.

81/100