Today was a My Own Private Idaho kind of day. I just felt the need to look up photos of some of the most beautiful boys (possibly, probably) in all the universe. Oh, I am still hot for you, Keanu Reeves and River Phoenix (circa 1991...But, let's face it, Keanu; if I see you in the right light and in the right role, you are still perfection to me). My Own Private Idaho is so much in my subconscience that I feel like I've already written about it here on Images Move Me. Maybe, I've referenced it, if only to myself while writing about other art. Truth be told, I've referenced this movie my whole life; I've compared every love affair and every longing I've ever felt to the relationship between Mike and Scott (Keanu and River).
My Own is directed by Gus Van Sant. Later, he directed Good Will Hunting. My Own is, like, the antithesis of Good Will Hunting. (By the way, that is the best compliment I can give to My Own.) Where Good Will Hunting is about angry, young men with all of the potential and smarts in the world, My Own is about two men--one of whom has very little potential on the outside world, but has a mess of longing and tenderness on the inside. River Phoenix plays his character, Mike, with all of the fragility that warrants an honest lover. Looks really do go far in this movie, but plot counts, too. It's like looking at an interesting painting. You get kind of lost in it.
My Own is a take on the Shakespeare play, Henry IV. (Shakespeare even gets a writing credit; it's that close.) In college, I was forced against my will to take a Shakespeare class, and I kicked and screamed the whole way through. So, I say My Own is Shakespeare only begrudgingly. It's really Van Sant and the beauty of Keanu and River. The plot goes something like this: Scott (Keanu) is a rich, snobby kid who has a trust fund-life set up for him by his father. He goes off on his own for a bit, embarrassing his father and his father's name. Scott takes up with some deviants--some male prostitutes who work the streets sucking dicks for money. Mike (the late River Phoenix) is a gay prostitute who befriends Scott and then falls in love with him. Scott says he's straight, but he sort of does/doesn't have a love affair with Mike. Mike's life is kind of disturbing and complicated, and I don't want to give anything away about his family life. Let's just say that his narcolepsy is an effect of his conception. Scott and Mike travel to find Mike's mom and then end up in Italy.
The sex scenes are shot like works of art. Like still photographs. They are in black and white (if I remember correctly) and the sex with the two men (as well as with Scott and a woman) is shot all the same way in this form. The lighting is perfect and serene. We never see the act. We see choice positions, and imagining what takes place instead of being told in pictures is more satisfying somehow in this intimate movie.
If you've read Henry IV, you know where this is going. You know about Scott's familial obligations and that Mike is the metaphor for the gritty, lusty life societal standards will not let him lead. But, it's beautiful. And tragic. And hard to forget.
Lovely.
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