I scream, you scream, we all scream for Keanu Reeves

This week it's time to embrace the weirdness: narcolepsy, denim jackets, the one-two punch that is River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves, and Idaho.

I'm referring, of course, to My Own Private Idaho (1991). Directed by Gus Van Sant, this is a movie that you'd swear makes you feel the chill through your windbreaker.

Gorgeous.

Phoenix and Reeves play Mike and Scott, two friends who hustle for cash and sleep, in Mike's case, anywhere and everywhere: gardens, the back of motorcycles, empty roads. His narcolepsy is the complicating element in his pursuit to find his mother, a journey which leads them from Idaho to Italy, and back again.

As Mike and Scott orbit around each other among bards and blank landscapes, the film becomes steadily more dream-like. It's just not a dream you've ever had before, or maybe one you've had so many times that you've forgotten how it ends. 

Does this look like a face to you?

Part of this is indubitably due to Gus Van Sant, whose track record for strangeness is high--he also directed Elephant, and, funnily enough, Good Will Hunting--but without Phoenix I feel the effect would be incomplete. 

His narration and unrequited love for Scott guide the film into what it is: a meditation, a novel, and a weird, strange masterpiece.

To sum up, in My Own Private Idaho not much happens, but what does happen--well, it's pretty interesting. So check it out. Embrace the weirdness.

Till next week.