Conference bookie::movies

638.0. "My Own Private Idaho" by 65320::RIVERS (Even better than the real thing) Thu Sep 08 1994 16:59

    Concluding the Labor Day weekend's Keanu-fest, I felt a need to
    complete the evening with something a little more savory than
    "Youngblood".  So I borrowed my friend's copy of "My Own Private Idaho"
    and once back in the comforts of my own apartment, watched it.
    
    "...Idaho" stars the late River Phoenix and Reeves as a pair of street
    hustlers working up in the Pacific Northwest.  This is a Gus Van Sant
    film and while the name sounds familiar, the only other film I'm aware
    of Mr. Van Sant directing is the hugely panned (with words like "worst
    piece of drek" and "horribly atrocious" I'll assume folks didn't like
    it), "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues".  I haven't seen that one, but I'll
    guess from "...Idaho" that Gus Van Sant films border on the "artsy" and
    enjoy a lot of metaphorical cinematography.
    
    Anyway:
    
    Phoenix is Mike, a narcoleptic young fellow who seems to have a small
    handful of other quirks.  He's got a mother who's disappeared Somewhere
    and a much older brother who we meet later on.  As I mentioned, he's a
    hustler and sort of just goes through life one trick after another. 
    There's a whole little gang of these guys who hang around street
    corners, among them Scott (Reeves) a kid from a very wealthy family who
    has apparantly decided to go throughly against the white-collar grain
    and ply his trade alongside these fellow "degenerates" (as Scott's dad
    terms them). At least until he's 21, which is when he will inherit a
    sizable fortune.  
    
    The film trails along slowly and a bit strangely -- if you are put off
    by quirky movies with strange shots of roiling clouds and houses
    dropping out of the air (it happens, honest), then you probably won't
    like this.  We follow Mike and Scott as they meet up with bizarre
    street folk and later, as Mike goes on a Mom-quest.  Mike is just sort
    of living life and occassionally dropping in his tracks due to his
    narcolepsy, which strikes in times of stress and leaves him in some
    fairly vulnerable predicaments (lying in the middle of a highway, for
    example).  Scott, who is Mike's best friend, stoically takes care of
    his fitful friend while basically whittling away the time until he gets
    his inheritance.  
    
    "My Own Private Idaho" is definitely not a mainstream film.  At times
    it almost seem documentary like, as in a scene where a couple of the
    hustlers talk about some unsavory experiences very much like they are
    narrating real life moments to the camera.  At other times, it moves
    along fairly linearly.  And at other times, it turns positively surreal
    (when a character named Bob, a sort of Faginesque gentleman, makes his
    appearance in Portland (or was it Seattle?), the movie starts behaving
    as if it's some sort of Shakespherean play).  
    
    I liked it, sorta.  It's not a feel good movie certainly and it was a
    bit weird.  But I have a soft spot for what I think are interesting
    character studies and this was pretty interesting.  River Phoenix does
    a very likable job as Mike and Keanu has his moments as Scott.  (Rock
    fans, Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers is in here, according to the
    credits. Unless I've confused him with someone else named Flea. :)  I
    found the Keanu character to be a bit unlikable by the end of the movie
    (well, a lot unlikable) and I'm pretty convinced that River was not,
    shall we say, sober, during the filming of this (I'm tend to think that
    Keanu wasn't particularly sober either) -- which shouldn't necessarily
    be taken as a slam.  Stoned or not, River Phoenix did a fine job, which
    makes it all the more pity he's no longer around.  
    
    My biggest lament is that not enough attention was paid to Mike or his
    past, especially after we find out certain facts from his brother.  And
    there were times when it felt like the movie as being "arty for art's
    sake".
    
    Again, not for everybody, not even if you're River Phoenix or Keanu
    Reeves fans.  I don't recall much violence,  and the sex scenes,
    few as they were, are short and generally filmed in a manner befitting a
    movie that has houses falling out of the sky -- a sequence of
    stylized held poses which I didn't find at all risque or even
    potentially offensive.  Your mileage may vary on this.
    
    *** out of ****
    
    kim
    

Gus Van Sant also did "Drugstore Cowboy" with Matt Dillon

    If this one seemed sort of Shakespearean, it was probably because it
    was heavily based on "Henry IV, Part II".
    
    Van Sant works out of Portland OR, where both of his previous films
    ("Mala Noche" and "Drugstore Cowboy") were set and filmed.  I believed
    he wrote the original screenplay to all three of these films.  The
    oft-panned "Even Cowgirls..." was his first direction of non-original
    material.
    
    "Drugstore Cowboy" was a personal fave.  "Mala Noche" was good, but not
    my cuppa.  I missed "My Own Private Idaho" on first go-round.  I'm
    waiting to catch it on the next time in the local repertory houses.
    
    He was also slated to work on the troubled "Mayor of Castro Street"
    (about gay SF supervisor Harvey Milk), but either dropped out or wwas
    dropped from the project.  (Robin Williams was supposed to star in this
    but dropped out as well.)
    
    - Dave