Review of My Own Private Idaho (1991) by Zeke T — 15 Jan 2013

At times it's stylistically lulling, but in the deceiving sort of way. You can make a film as "beautiful" as you want; pleasing shots, creative "freeze" frames, dreamily drifting music. But when there's nothing to back it up it sinks. River Phoenix's character (I need to work on remembering character names) comes from a disturbing past, and Keanu Reeves' character's family isn't the best either. It's a great setup for two characters who try to get better. But the whole time they're getting worse. It's not the getting worse I'm criticizing. Characters who get worse give us warnings, cruel pictures of reality when they decide to incessantly make the wrong decisions (see Breaking Bad). But the movie doesn't seem to disprove of anything. It shows their collapse, but doesn't highlight their wrongs. It views life like it's meant to be directionless. If you get the wrong cards, go lie in a road somewhere (or if you're narcoleptic, you will lie in the road without a choice). It could almost be seen as fatalistic. Reeves grows up in a wealthy family with a father who appears to be of the backstabbing type, and then Reeves abandons his former friends. Phoenix grows up in squalor, and he ends there (it's one of the better parts of the movie; slowly moving out as we look on his pitiful isolation in the road). We see his destruction and heartbreak, but what do we learn?

So I guess my primary disagreement with the film is in its false and fatalistic view of the human person.

Watched in theory class on April 9, 2012 around 8 PM.