My Own Private Idaho

A road movie fused with elements of Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1, Gus Van Sant's third feature is a surreal, elliptical meditation on love and power. River Phoenix stars as Mike Waters, a young street hustler who suffers from narcolepsy, whose search for the mother who abandoned him leads him across the Northwestern U.S. and even Italy. Mike is joined by Scott Favor (Keanu Reeves), the bisexual son of the mayor of Portland, Oregon with whom Mike falls in love.