My Own Private Idaho (1991)
Storyline
Two young street hustlers: Mike Waters, a sensitive narcoleptic who dreams of the mother who abandoned him, and Scott Favor, the wayward son of the mayor of Portland and the object of Mike's desire. Navigating a volatile world of junkies, thieves, and johns, Mike takes Scott on a quest along the grungy streets and open highways of the Pacific Northwest, in search of an elusive place called home.
Directors
Cast
Gus Van Sant, Jim Caviezel, Keanu Reeves, Udo Kier, Grace Zabriskie, James Russo, River Phoenix, Flea, William Richert, Rodney Harvey, Chiara Caselli, Michael Parker, Jessie Thomas, Tom Troupe, Sally Curtice, Robert Lee Pitchlynn, Mickey Cottrell, Wade Evans, Matthew Ebert, Tom Cramer, Vana O'Brien, Shaun Jordan, Scott Patrick Green, Shawn Wight, George Conner, Oliver Kirk, Stanley Hainsworth, Joshua Halladay, Douglas Tollenen, Steven Clark Pachosa, Lannie Swerdlow, Wally Gaarsland, Bryan Wilson, Mark Weaver, Conrad 'Bud' Montgomery, Pat Patterson, Steve Vernelson, Mike Cascadden, Eric Hull, James A. Arling, Ana Cavinato, Melanie Mosely, Greg Murphy, David Reppinhagen, Tiger Warren, Massimo Di Cataldo, Pao Pei Andreoli, Robert Egon, Paolo Baiocco, Mario Stracciarolo
Trailer
Reviews
100
The New York Times
The film itself is invigorating - written, directed, and acted with enormous insight and comic elan. [27 Sept 1991]
100
It gets you below the emotional belt in a searing, delicate way. No movie this year approaches such magnificent imagery, such delectable poetry.
90
Chicago Reader
The style is so eclectic that it may take some getting used to, but Van Sant, working from his own story for the first time, brings such lyrical focus to his characters and his poetry that almost everything works.
90
Van Sant's sensibility is wholly original, wholly fresh. "My Own Private Idaho" adds a new ingredient: a kind of boho sweetness. I loved it.
88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
My Own Private Idaho achieves more than most movies dream of attempting. The Shakespearian allusions aside, Van Sant has essentially remade "Of Mice and Men" for the nineties, with Mike as the "mouse," Scott as the "man." It is the mouse who roars.
