Grade: A- | Genre: Drama/Independent Summary: My Own Private Idaho holds a special place in my heart because it's the first independent film I ever saw (or at least was aware of). For the first time, I realized that cinema could be an art and that a film could make you think, question the world around you. It could speak volumes without ever saying a word.

Before Gus Van Sant made a splash in the mid-90's with high profile, independent minded films like Good Will Hunting and To Die For, he was making curious indie fare for the sharp of taste. His second film, My Own Private Idaho released for the first time on DVD yesterday, still ranks as one of the defining moments of this great filmmaker's cache of work.

River Phoenix was at his best as Mike, a narcoleptic hustler pawning his ass to every depraved soul in Seattle as a means of survival. Keanu Reeves plays Scott, a fellow hustler who sells himself not for lack of money but to tee off his stern, mayoral father. Scott and Mike become best friends, as Mike needs someone to look after him when he goes into his narcoleptic spells becoming a target for getting robbed and generally taken advantage of. Mike's spells are brought on by stress and as you can imagine life as a hustler is a street riddled with potholes of stress. We never see what trigger brought him to this life on the streets though from the films first frames we get snippets of his mother carefully holding Mike's head in her lap stroking his hair. This is a theme echoed throughout as we later see home movie clips of his mom with a young child as his mind dreams protecting him from reality.

He sets out with Scott on a search for his mother. They steal a bike and travel to Idaho to see his brother that births its own set of disturbing revelations. They keep tracing his mother's steps in the sand through a hotel in Idaho then across the Atlantic to Rome and eventually reeling back to Seattle. The film revolves around Mike's journey to find her in order to satisfy that need for love that eats away at him. The pieces come together and we find out that Mike is in love with Scott yet Scott isn't a homosexual. He sells his body to men more as a twisted preparation for the life he is to take on when he turns 21 and inherits his father's fortune. When Scott meets and instantly falls in love with a girl while they are in Italy, you can see it tearing Mike to emotional shreds.

This search for family is shadowed in Scott's own emotional needs. His father isn't a person that is able to teach him the ways and means of life sitting in his lofty perch above it all. Scott stumbles upon Bob, one of a cast of eccentric street characters, who fills this void. He ruthlessly uses Bob to absorb everything he can then tosses him aside as well as Mike and the rest of his street life when he takes up his place in society. Scott is such an interesting, complex character. He has tasted life from both sides of the economical divide. He takes up his privileged birthright even though the entire person he is has been nurtured and sculpted by the street. Keanu is really good in this role (that is a set of words you don't see come together very often). He shows tremendous promise here as his career was just finding its feet. He is extremely relaxed and plays this raw, gritty role very effortlessly. What happened to this guy?

Van Sant's unique vision that results from the direction of this film is one of its greatest strengths. While Mike is passed out, Van Sant portrays the passage of time with clouds blurring by. When Mike is getting a blown from one of his "dates" the moment of climax is marked by a clip of a barn knifing to the ground and splintering into a thousand shards over a stretch of desolate highway. The sex scenes are done in nice still shots that really frame the moments in either they're absurdity or the careful love. I also liked the cut away shots when characters would open up their intentions to let us quench the thirst of those whys that plague us throughout the film. The artistic elements dotted throughout his later films are on steroids here showing us an amazing talent being born.

My Own Private Idaho holds a special place in my heart because it's the first independent film I ever saw (or at least was aware of). For the first time, I realized that cinema could be an art and that a film could make you think, question the world around you. It could speak volumes without ever saying a word. I will be the first to admit that this film isn't for everyone. This is certainly for those with open minds and who lean to the artistic. It doesn't try to clean up the harsh underbelly of treading through life on the streets. The central element running through the film is the road. It ends as it begins with River standing on a lifeless desert road in Idaho saying, "I'm a connoisseur of roads. Been tasting roads my entire life. This road will never end." I wish that could have been the case for River because there are a lot of roads we still needed to explore with him.

Add My Own Private Idaho to your queue at Netflix now.