My Own Private Idaho

An essential film of the New Queer Cinema movement, My Own Private Idaho restages Shakespeare’s Henry IV through the relationship between two young street hustlers in the Pacific Northwest. Narcoleptic Mike (River Phoenix) dreams of his mother who abandoned him and pines for his best friend Scott (Keanu Reeves), who is biding his time hustling until he comes into a major inheritance. Desperate to reunite with his mother, Mike takes Scott on a journey to find her leading to a closeness that ignites Mike’s long-simmering romantic feelings for Scott. Gus Van Sant’s influential third feature is a picturesque and melancholic portrait of Gen X desire.