MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO (1991)

MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO (R) Gus Van Sant's follow-up to Drugstore Cowboy lacks the earlier film's comic punchiness, yet it's a rich, audacious piece of work. River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves star as young hustlers drifting through the Northwest. The movie isn't really about being a male prostitute (or being gay). It is, rather, an elusive poetic fable about a young man-River Phoenix's Mike-without a home, a family, a self. It's about rootlessness as a spiritual state. Phoenix gives an extraordinary performance. His Mike is dazed and weirdly becalmed, like a drugged-out animal living on his last shreds of instinct. The movie often seems as rootless as poor Mike (one section is even lifted from Shakespeare's Henry IV, a conceptual stunt that doesn't come off). Yet it has an authentic emotional lyricism, and Van Sant's images can haunt you for days. A-

You Might Also Like

• Movie Review MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO (1991) | Owen Gleiberman
• Video Review DRUGSTORE COWBOY;MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO;EVEN COWGIRLS GET THE BLUES;TO DIE FOR;GOOD WILL HUNTING
• Photo Gallery: Filmography Keanu: 24 highs and lows | Simon Vozick-Levinson, Kate Ward
• Movie Review Street Kings (Apr 11, 2008) | Owen Gleiberman
• Movie News Oscar Cheat Sheet - Best Director (Aug 15, 2003)
• Movie Commentary Critic's Choice | Lisa Schwarzbaum