Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Bookmark this pageMy Own Private Idaho (1991)
Director: Gus Van Sant
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Van Sant's impressive third feature has enough ideas to fill three movies, a plenitude that threatens to blow the film apart (but never does). It's a road movie filmed mainly from the point of view of gay hustler Mike (Phoenix, superb), a narcoleptic who falls unconscious without warning at moments of stress. As Mike tours the Pacific Northwest doing 'dates', he meets up with mayor's son Scott (Reeves), and together they set off in search of Mike's mother. The disconcerting realities of the situation are punctuated by sequences of surreal, dreamlike beauty, 'documentary'-style inserts, and playful variations on Shakespeare, with Scott still playing Prince Hal to the Falstaffian Bob (Richert), a thief and ex-hustler, in the knowledge that he will soon be 'King'. Stunning to look at - the dawn and dusk landscapes are sublime - and seductively scored, the film's uniqueness lies in its remarkable emotional open-heartedness.Author: WH
User reviews of this film
-
- Godfrey Hamilton said...
- Posted on Jan 14 2009 06:06 But does Van Sant seriously think that it's a representative depiction of a male prostitute's life when Udo Kier fellates Phoenix? Really... it would be the other way round... but would tragic Phoenix's handlers have allowed him to play to such a perception of male "passivity"? Clearly not... but the young hooker in reality would have been paid to blow the ageing john. Yes, really.
- Report as inappropriate
Cast & crew
Director: Gus Van Sant
Producer: Laurie Parker
Cast: River Phoenix, Keanu Reeves, James Russo, Udo Kier, William Richert, Rodney Harvey, Chiara Caselli, Grace Zabriskie, Tom Troupe full cast
Duration: 104 mins
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
Time Out's 101 Films of the Decade
Ten years, thousands of movies and millions of dollars in international box office, and it all boils down to this
Jim Jarmusch on 'The Limits of Control'
Jim Jarmusch has followed ‘Broken Flowers’ with an esoteric crime mystery. Dave Calhoun speaks to him from his New York office
Richard Linklater on 'Me and Orson Welles'
Dave Calhoun meets the 49-year-old, Houston-born filmmaker Richard Linklater to discuss his new comedy
Our verdict on Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones
Peter Jackson ends a triumphant decade with a sentimental misfire with this lush Alice Sebold adaptation
On the set of Ken Loach's 'Route Irish'
Dave Calhoun meets Ken Loach on the set of his forthcoming Iraq war movie
Is 'Paranormal Activity' the new 'Blair Witch'?
How does a film go from DIY experiment to box-office smash? 'Paranormal Activity' director Oren Peli explains
A gateway to all things 'New Moon'
In anticipation of 'The Twilight Saga: New Moon', Time Out is offering the chance to pick up a limited edition pack with three exclusive magazines and a free poster.
The films that deserve a TV spin-off
With Roland Emmerich suggesting he'd like to make a '2012' TV spin-off, we propose some more movie-to-TV serialisations
Time Out's 50 greatest animated films with commentary by Terry Gilliam
In celebration of the release of Pixar's 'Up' and Wes Anderson's 'Fantastic Mr Fox', read our rundown of fifty classic feature length animations
What do you think?
Post your review now