My Own Private Idaho (1991), dir. Gus Van Sant
It's when you start doing things for free, that you start to grow wings. Isn't that right, Mike?
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My Own Private Idaho (1991), dir. Gus Van Sant
It's when you start doing things for free, that you start to grow wings. Isn't that right, Mike?
@gifevents 2: I Understood that Reference Day 7. Retelling: My Own Private Idaho retelling Henry IV
Y/N has known her way around the streets tragically well since she was a really little girl. Now, she’s nineteen, sitting on a bus stop bench in some fucking town (It’s all the same, really) with a passed out Mike Waters. She has one arm around his waist, and she’s glaring out at an empty street, daring anyone to just try and hurt him.
Mike is Y/N’s age, too, but he seems much younger, sensitive and narcoleptic, blond and angel-faced as he is. He doesn’t seem like he belongs here. Y/N thinks of Mike as her little brother. Besides, she knows how he feels about Scott Favor. For all her street smarts and harsh walls she’s had to build up, making her seem much more rough around the edges than Mike ever could, Y/N’s heart is in Scott Favor’s rich, clean, unwounded hand just as much as Mike’s is. “We’re both fucked, kid,” she chuckles now, brushing Mike’s blond hair out of his pale forehead as he twitches in his sleep. Across the street, the sunset shines against a beat up metal trash can, lighting it up. It looks almost beautiful, and Y/N thinks of the sun bright eyes of the stupid prodigal son she’ll never be quite close enough to taste.
When Mike and Scott plan to go off to Italy to look for Mike’s mother, Y/N decides to tag along. She wants to be there for poor sweet Mikey, and besides, the thought of Scott being an ocean away from her makes Y/N feel sick. Scott is already far enough out of her reach, even in the same room.
The night before the trio leaves the country, Y/N pulls Scott into her hotel room. “Listen, Favor,” she starts as soon as the door’s closed, “You’re turning 21 at the end of the month, an’ I know you’re gonna kick us to the curb and go play Daddy’s favorite son.” Scott’s dark porcelain doll eyes go wide, but he doesn’t try to deny her claim. “So before you do, I just wanted to–” Scott leans his head back, so that his brown-black hair falls in his face just right. “You wanted to tell me you’re in love with me?”
Y/N snorts. “Fuck no.” Scott’s face sours, and Y/N rolls her eyes impatiently. “Of course I’m in love with you, Scottie,” she snaps, “Mikey is, too. It doesn’t change anything. No, I wanted to ask you to do me.”
She takes a wad of sweaty money out of her bra and hands it to him, feeling pathetic. Scott takes it, and he takes her without so much as another word. That morning, Y/N doesn’t want to look Mike Waters in the eye, but he looks at her, sad and knowing. “It’s okay,” Mike says softly, always sounding half in a dream. Y/N feels like she might throw up.
Italy happens. Italy changes everything. Y/N knows it when she’s sharing looks of mutual heartbreak with Mike as Scott looks at this new Italian girl, Carmela, in a way Y/N and Mike would both give all the money in the world for.
Y/N isn’t even surprised anymore when Scott turns 21, takes his father’s place, gets engaged to Carmela, and looks at Y/N and Mike both as strangers, leaving both with nothing. Almost nothing, in Y/N’s case. Unknowingly, accidentally, he’s left her with a little something. Y/N is pregnant with Scott Favor’s baby, and she’s keeping it. “It’s okay,” she says to Mike as she tells him the news, “I’ll be fine. I’ve got street smarts, remember?”
375 - My Own Private Idaho
We're finally pulling one of our most passionate entries to our 100 Snubs series, Gus Van Sant's My Own Private Idaho. Adapted loosely from multiple Shakespeare plays (particularly both Henry IVs), the film follows an epileptic young sex worker named Mike (River Phoenix) as he drifts the globe with his loyal cohort Scott (Keanu Reeves). Van Sant was post-Drugstore Cowboy ascendant when the film arrived, but it's the Venice Film Festival-anointed performance by Phoenix that got the most attention and helps the film live in bittersweet infamy.
This episode, we talk about Phoenix's stunning performance and his Oscar nomination for Running on Empty before his tragic death. We also discuss the highlights of Van Sant's filmography, the unfair ridicule that greeted Reeves' Bram Stoker's Dracula performance, and where we would place the film in the 1991 Adapted Screenplay race.
Topics also include the 1991 Venice Film Festival, nipple pulling, and New Queer Cinema.
The 1991 Academy Awards
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LGBTQ Movie of the Day:
My Own Private Idaho
Description:
Two best friends living on the streets of Portland as hustlers embark on a journey of self discovery and find their relationship stumbling along the way.
Title: My Own Private Idaho
Genre: Adventure / Drama
Age Rating: 18
Release Date: 1991
Relationships: MLM (Unrequited)
Representation: Gay
Running Time: 1h 44m
Country of Origin: United States
Language: English
Box Office: $8.1 million
Warnings: Sex, nudity, violence, profanity, homophobia
Starring: River Phoenix, Keanu Reeves, James Russo, William Richert, Rodney Harvey, Michael Parker, Flea, Chiara Caselli, Udo Kier
Submitted by Anonymous
Sleepless (2001), dir. Dario Argento
I know I said I was done with the Italian show… but…