Two best friends living on the streets of Portland as hustlers embark on a journey of self discovery and find their relationship stumbling along the way.Two best friends living on the streets of Portland as hustlers embark on a journey of self discovery and find their relationship stumbling along the way.Two best friends living on the streets of Portland as hustlers embark on a journey of self discovery and find their relationship stumbling along the way.
- Awards
- 9 wins & 9 nominations
- Denise
- (as Jessie Thomas)
- Coverboy
- (as Matt Ebert)
- Director
- Writers
- Gus Van Sant
- William Shakespeare(uncredited)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe scene with all the boys on the cover of the porno magazines coming to life and interacting was not done with any computers. At the time of production, CGI was still a very expensive tool. The individual pieces were filmed with the actors standing behind large pieces of plexi-glass, with the mock-magazine cover on front. Later, optical effects, similar to those used in matte painting, were used to composite them together on the "magazine rack".
- GoofsAt the campfire scene, whenever the camera shows Scott, Mike's hands are hanged to each other, but whenever the camera shows Mike, he is playing with piece of wood.
- Quotes
Scott Favor: I only have sex with a guy for money.
Mike Waters: Yeah, I know.
Scott Favor: And two guys can't love each other.
Mike Waters: Yeah.
Mike Waters: Well, I don't know. I mean... I mean, for me, I could love someone even if I, you know, wasn't paid for it... I love you, and... you don't pay me.
Scott Favor: Mike...
Mike Waters: I really wanna kiss you, man... Well goodnight, man... I love you though... You know that... I do love you.
- ConnectionsEdited into The Phoenix Portal (2005)
- SoundtracksCattle Call
Words and Music by Tex Owens
Performed by Eddy Arnold
Courtesy of Forster Music Publishing and the RCA Records label of BMG Music
Gus Van Sant is a hit or miss director - Drugstore Cowboy, To Die For, and Good Will Hunting were all excellent, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues and his Psycho remake were horrendous - and I hate to say that I'm leaning more towards the miss column with 'My Own Private Idaho.' The best way I can put this film is that it seems like there are too many cooks making the soup and all the ingredients have been served better. Van Sant wants to make this a road movie, a comedy, a coming-of-age movie, a Shakespeare play, a surreal picture... I feel like he's taken the best elements of 'Easy Rider', 'Pixote', and 'Henry V' and mangled them.
River Phoenix is excellent though, he's the best part of the film and I give the credit solely to him. Why? Because ever other performance just isn't very good. Reeves seems uncomfortable in almost every scene whether it's quoting Shakespeare or lying shirtless in bed with Phoenix, he can't pull off what this movie wants. Neither can Richert as the leader of the band of hustlers - who comes across so over the top and theatrical that as a contrast to Phoenix's mellow/realistic hustler it just doesn't work. The problem with taking dialogue straight from Henry IV is for one it's awfully hard to top the Bard for writing. Two; you need actors who can deliver it well.
Van Sant has imagination and the visuals in the film are breathtaking. The movie starts off extremely well, but it's obvious that he had little control of the script or the actors and in the end that kills the movie.
Very surprising that Phoenix didn't pick up an Oscar nomination.
- Oliver-50
- Oct 15, 2005
Details
Box office
- Budget
- $2,500,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $6,401,336
- Gross worldwide
- $6,405,640
- Runtime1 hour 44 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1