My Own Private Idaho

Co-Presented by SAAF

Gus Van Sant’s powerful, visually dazzling tale of unrequited love and life on society’s margins stars River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves as two young street hustlers searching for an elusive place called “home.” For My Own Private Idaho, Van Sant combined two screenplays he was working on – one a modern version of Shakespeare’s Henry IV— with an original short story to create the dreamlike tale of two wayward hustlers who drift through the coffee houses and wide open spaces of the Pacific Northwest, the Italian countryside and back again, navigating a volatile world of junkies, thieves and johns on their grungy journey of discovery. Mike Waters (Phoenix, in one of his most iconic roles) is a sensitive narcoleptic who dreams of the mother who abandoned him, and Scott Favor (Reeves) is the wayward son of the mayor of Portland who waits for his 21st birthday and the sizable inheritance that will come with it. He is also the ambivalent object of Mike’s desire.  Separately and together, they entertain a host of eccentric male and female clients, as street urchins (led by the Falstaff-like Bob Pigeon, memorably played by William Richert) spout lines from the Bard and barns fall mysteriously from the sky. We’re definitely not in Kansas anymore. (Dir. by Gus Van Sant, 1991, USA, 104 mins., Rated R)