My Own Private Idaho (1991)
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when this was good it was pretty great. mostly the beginning and ending, with the loose bits of imagery around phoenix. i really liked in these parts and at other times when it seemed to tread the line between serious and silly. keanu’s first musing about his father and his upbringing really made me laugh. it was delivered seriously but tossed so quickly it hit me really humorously. but then the whole father business became the center so i wonder if i was reading this tone in where it wasn’t.
so i guess it ended up pretty similar to drugstore cowboy for me. first the main strength was the relationship between the two leads. in this case the ambiguity of that relationship is what made it so interesting. the campfire scene on its own did well to continue this confusion, but unfortunately laid the groundwork for its final determination. and then the main weakness of the movie was a reliance on a us vs. squares ideology that always is pretty lame. but the main difference that made me like this one is that the pace fit the subject matter a lot better than in dc. the languid pace and dropping in and out of things worked well. and the narcolepsy was kind of an interesting way of having a character always seem fucked up without bringing drugs into it.
the other two things i really didn’t like - the whole brother/father business with phoenix which didn’t add anything for me. and the still photo sex sequences that just felt timid more than anything.
