My Own Private Idaho (1991)

The review hails it as Van Sant's freest and most daring work in New Queer Cinema, singling out the stream-of-consciousness style and River Phoenix's ineffable performance for particular praise.

The critic praises Van Sant’s associative, poetic style blending neorealism and lyricism, highlighting the film’s fluid shifts between intimacy and distance, its sense of place, and its exploration of young men’s subjectivity through home-movie inserts and dreamlike sequences.

The critic praises the film's evocation of its characters' drifting need and sense of loneliness in a human comedy style illuminated by insight that experience can seem absurd. It notes the lack of mechanical plot or contrived tests, focusing instead on two particular young men and how they pass their lives.

The critic calls the film half-great, praising the tender story of unrequited love between the two hustlers and River Phoenix's vulnerable performance while faulting the uneven Shakespearean subplot.

The film is a major disappointment despite high expectations for Van Sant. It falters with an ill-advised Shakespearean mid-section and uneven script, though River Phoenix gives a standout performance and some visual flourishes succeed.

The critic describes the film as puckish, understated and defiantly idiosyncratic, weaker on plot than Van Sant's previous work but redeemed by being edgily funny and suddenly tender. It singles out the handling of loss, loneliness and romantic dreams through Phoenix's delicate performance, while noting the quirky Shakespearean elements and Van Sant's sensibility.

The critic calls the film a big bold leap that places Van Sant among America's most innovative independent filmmakers, describing it as an invigorating road movie written, directed and acted with enormous insight and comic elan. It focuses on two very different male hustlers who cross paths and become close friends for a while.

Van Sant’s third feature overflows with ideas in a road movie seen through a narcoleptic gay hustler’s eyes; it is stunning visually with sublime landscapes, seductively scored, and distinguished by its remarkable emotional open-heartedness.

The review finds the film rather less than the sum of its striking parts, an ambitious over-reaching disappointment that is more interesting than some conservative successes. It praises Phoenix's believable performance but criticizes the sudden shift to a Shakespearean adaptation that falls short due to Reeves' narrow range.

The film is a queer masterpiece and a wistful hybrid of road movie, Shakespeare riff, and documentary that meditates on male desire. It excels through its empathetic, non-judgmental portrait of idiosyncratic, lonely characters on the margins.

The critic finds the film a deeply personal, non-naturalistic work that gets close to society's raw wounds without offering easy answers, often romantic yet desolate. River Phoenix's committed, painfully truthful performance as the narcoleptic hustler Mike is singled out as the standout element that hurts to watch.

The film successfully transplants Shakespeare’s Henry IV to the streets of Portland, giving hustler life a rare poignancy. It stands out for its lyrical yet rough visual style, River Phoenix’s masterful lead performance, and dialogue that blends iambic pentameter with natural speech.