Incannerax What a waste of my time!!!

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

MoPoshy Absolutely brilliant

Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

simon-psykolog So we are introduced to and follow a group of hustlers living on the very buttom of society. We zoom in on Mike (River Phoenix) and Scott (Keanou Reeves) each with their sad story that slowly unfolds.Mike is really tragic and sad. His mental state seemed to be infantile and instead of dealing with diverse inner conflicts in a manner that could have some sort of therapeutic effect he escapes into one narcoleptic seizure after another. It was as if he needed to start life all over again by returning to the very time of birth and here being nurtured as supposed.Hollow as a result, responsibility that follows an adult life was by any standard not possible. The relationships that could be established was superficial and more driven by common destiny with the others in the group than by an explicit choice. With one exception. Scott. Their friendship though still rested on the premise that Scott needed to stay in a position as the grown up who could be in charge.Otherwise Mike only had short moments of joy when luxury in a hotelroom etc. could be enjoyed as a prelude to the exchange of sex for money. Luckily the director had chosen not to depict these scenes - it would have very unpleasant, maybe even as watching a peadophile scene, and without a real purpose. It was easy enough to imagine.Scott is finally able to break his social heritage and with that the friendship with Mike. This is depicted in the most beautiful ending scene where both Mike and Scott attends a funeral at the same church yard at the same time and the estrangement between the two is shown with great effect.The acting in itself makes the movie worth watching. One thing is the undeniable talent of both River Phoenix and Keanou Reeves but the directing seemed to provoke different modes of acting.At certain times it seemed as if the acting had an almost theatrical quality to it. It consisted of monologes that seemed to be spoken out to an audience all the while the actor walked around, like on a theater scene.At another time it seemed as we were watching an interview with two hustlers telling about their first experience selling sex.And then we had the two scenes, surreal in their quality, where sex and a strong and odd narcissistic tendency blended together which gave the feeling that this was a way of dealing with a topic in a more humerous way that didn´t correspond with the more general narrative. They existed in their own right. And right they had! The target audience to this movie is hard to define. You must find out yourself...Regards Simon

chetburnett9 Gus Van Sant tends to make very strange, surreal yet extremely realistic movies like Elephant, Drugstore Cowboy, To Die For, Gerry and so on. Elephant has it's own flaws, but I think it's the magnum opus of these realistic stories of surrealism, but this is definitely a contender. This is probably one of the more surreal of the films, as it ventures into magical realism, dreams, drug trips, etc. Heartthrobs, River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves lead the show as Mike and Scott. Scott Favor comes from a wealthy upbringing, but decides to sleep on rooftops, streets and have sex for money. He doesn't need to, he wants to. On the other side of things is Mike, a narcoleptic, homeless bastard. These two have an unexpected friendship as they try and search for Mike's mother, steal from a man named Bob, drive through America on a moped. The film is filled with paintings of shots. It's an odyssey. Most filmmakers are unable to achieve such development of character in 4 hours, but this movie does it under two.10/10Gus Van Sant is a genius and is wasting his time with projects like The Sea of Trees, Promised Land etc.

gsygsy It really doesn't seem 25 years ago that I first wondered at this beautiful piece of cinema. Time has been kind to it. It's even more impressive now. Its Shakespearean element seems to lift it out of a particular era, turning it into the stuff classics are made of.It is poetic, idiosyncratic work, simultaneously cool/objective and passionate/subjective, a remarkable achievement. The famous campfire scene between River Phoenix's Mike and Keanu Reeves' Scott is heartrending. The powerful confrontation between Phoenix and James Russo as Mike's brother is equally memorable. The high passions running in both section are counterpointed by the inscrutability of Reeves'face. His charisma has never been put to better use.On this second viewing, I was struck by Beatrix Aruna Pasztor's superb costume designs. They help create the film's air of timelessness.My feeling is that this movie will continue to be held, rightly, in very high esteem for a long, long time to come.

Dana Privette I like all sorts of films be it blockbuster or indie and this movie was just pitiful. Why anyone would want to star in a movie with Keanu Reeves and his stellar acting skills is beyond me. Quite possibly one of the worst, most pointless movies I've ever seen. I was intrigued after reading, "Last Night at the Viper Room" to see some of River's movies other than "Stand By Me" because I'm convinced he was going to be one of the greats. His acting is the only good thing about this movie. I wish I would have counted how many times I had to pause this movie to go and do other things. It didn't hold my interest in the least. I should have known when I saw that Flea was making an attempt at acting in this that it was in no way a serious film. The strangely posed sex scenes were nothing but corny. You'll catch yourself rolling your eyes quite often. I was hoping for a good film, even something artistic but instead I got bizarre, and trying too hard.