My Own Private Idaho
“Wherever, whatever, have a nice day.”
Gus Van SantCast
River Phoenix
Keanu Reeves
James Russo
Credits
Written by:
Gus Van Sant
Plot
Mike, a narcoleptic street hustler in Portland, and Scott, the son of the city's mayor who is slumming it before inheriting a fortune, travel to Idaho to find Mike's mother, and later to Italy. Gus Van Sant's 1991 film, with River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves, mixes realism with dreamlike sequences and a loose adaptation of Shakespeare's Henry IV.
Sinekatalog’s take
Gus Van Sant's road movie follows two street hustlers through a dreamy, poetic American landscape. River Phoenix is heartbreaking, and the film mixes Shakespeare and sadness into a strange, lasting gem.Sinekatalog’s own editorial review – not a user or critic quote.
Ratings
IMDb: 6.9 / 10 (68,184 votes)
IMDb rating and vote count from the IMDb ratings dataset (October 2026). Scores change over time.
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