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My Own Private Idaho (1991)

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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

Time Out Film Guide

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User reviews of this film

my name is red said...

Posted on Mar 19 2010 15:54 in response to Godfrey - you'd be surprised. unless you've had experience in this area, perhaps wiser not to comment, don't you think?

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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.

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