My Own Private Idaho is the sort of film that really shouldn’t work. The movie apparently came about when writer/director Gus Van Sant was working on three separate scripts and then decided to merge them all together. The result is a movie that ought to be a mess. The tone and story jump about, some of its pretty random and surreal, and its Shakespearean pretentions are a bit bizarre. However, it works. These disparate elements and tones come together, helped by an astonishing performance by River Phoenix as young hustler Mike. His character – an outsider living a marginal and disintegrating existence – is a reflection of the film itself. It ultimately becomes an unexpected masterclass of montage – where by placing seemingly disparate things side-by-side and throwing in unexpected imagery (not least the famous falling barn), it creates something unique and pulls you into a character and world in a way few other films have ever managed. Read More here

Who were your early idols or role models? As contemporaries were concerned, I thought River Phoenix was a really great actor. I always looked up to Tom Hanks too; he was kind of an everyman who didn’t need to be the hyper-romantic lothario lead to be successful. I certainly didn’t feel like the lothario at a chubby prepubescent 13, so I looked up to him a lot and his career choices.

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Three LGBT themed films to run at the Belcourt: My Own Private Idaho
This Gus Van Sant classic, released in 1991, is a loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s Henry IV. Mike Waters (River Phoenix) is a gay hustler afflicted with narcolepsy. Scott Favor (Keanu Reeves) is the rebellious son of a mayor. Together, the two travel from Portland, Oregon to Idaho and finally to the coast of Italy in a quest to find Mike’s estranged mother. Along the way they turn tricks for money and drugs, eventually attracting the attention of a wealthy benefactor and sexual deviant. Special showing at midnight on February 9. Read More here // Official Website: here

Tuesday marks the 24th anniversary of River Phoenix’s untimely death on Oct. 31, 1993. The actor was just 23 when he died outside the Viper Room in West Hollywood due to a drug overdose, but made his mark on the world after starring in beloved films Stand By Me (1986), Running on Empty (1988) and My Own Private Idaho (1991). His final film, Dark Blood, was completed in 2012. In Phoenix’s honor, we’re taking a look back at his quick rise to fame and the best work of the gone-but-never-forgotten star. Read More // here

New gallery additions in the magazine scans section including the following…

Details (November 1991)
Young Americans Issue 1-3
Just 17
People (15 November 1993)
Premiere (January 2001 / March 2004)

Various film related articles in the “Film Articles” category.

Check out the gallery!

We have an awesome new layout from monicandesign.com

Former teen idol and child actor River Phoenix would have been 47 years old today. Drug use tragically cut short Phoenix’s promising film career, which ended with his death in 1993. He died just as he seemed to be entering his prime. Read More here

BFI, LONDON
16 Sep @ 20:45 – Stand By Me (NFT1)
30 Sep @ 15:45 – Stand By Me (NFT2)
22 Sep @ 18:15 – Stand By Me (NFT2)
Official Website: // here

PRINCE CHARLES CINEMA, LONDON
01 Sep @ 9:00pm – Stand By Me
Official Website: // here

The movie Stand By Me is one of those great throwbacks to a time when movies were just different than they usually are today. In addition, it was a movie that seemed to handle all of the angst that was involved with growing up and attempting to develop one’s own personality while simultaneously trying not to go against one’s own culture or code. Regardless of how old the movie gets, this fact alone means that it is timeless. Read More: // here

Yes, spring just arrived, but that doesn’t mean we can’t get excited about summer, too. And with summer comes Indianapolis Museum of Art’s Summer Nights Film Series, a staple on our summer calendar here at NUVO.
Saturday, July 29: Stand By Me (1986, 89 min., R)
In the summer of 1959, four 12-year-old friends, Gordie (Will Wheaton), Chris (River Phoenix), Teddy (Corey Feldman) and Vern (Jerry O’Connell), set off to find a dead body rumored to be in the woods, creating memories and friendships that last them a lifetime, in the Rob Reiner film. Read More: // here