My Own Private Idaho

River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves in Gus Van Sant's landmark New Queer Cinema film about two young street hustlers. Visually stunning and emotionally raw, My Own Private Idaho combines unbridled immediacy with Shakespearean tragedy, offering a poignant look at unrequited love and life on society's margins.

Scott (Keanu Reeves) hustles as a form of protest against his privileged background. One day he meets Mike (River Phoenix), a young man driven to prostitution by sheer necessity - whose life is further complicated by narcolepsy that causes unexpected collapses in the most impossible situations. Bound by a shared sense of abandonment, they develop a friendship that Mike, who is gay, experiences differently. Their relationship becomes the only thing that helps them find the strength to confront their own pasts and the courage to face reality.