Review of My Own Private Idaho (1991) by Ai H — 05 Jan 2009

Gus Vant San does Shakespearean drama his way, and the results are pretty damn cool. River Phoenix makes for a great tragic hero as a gay hustler who wants desperately to meet the mother who left him and to be loved by his best friend, a rich runaway played by Keanu Reeves.

The visuals are excellent and innovative, smashing together Terrence Malick-esque scenery with a 90s-indie sensibility. My favorite parts took place in Portland, when Keanu and River were hanging out with the street minstrels of the city.

Everything became hilariously and gloriously theatrical, mostly personified in the character of Bob, as he spouts out each line like he's in the middle of an Othello production. It really feels as though the characters in these scene have an insatiable and joyful lust for living fast, unpredictable, and out of control.

It's not an incredibly structured piece, story-wise, and gets pretty surreal and abstract from time to time, but it's an intriguing and entertaining film nonetheless, which allows us to get a good distance past the surface of a confused and doomed young man.