On this day in 1991 Gus Van Sant’s My Own Private Idaho premiered on the US West Coast (after an initial limited release in New York). Starring River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves the film was lauded not just for their performances, but its representation of then-controversial themes including sex work, homelessness and the LGBTQ community. Newsweek critic David Ansen said about this moving scene from the film, which River Phoenix rewrote himself: "The campfire scene in which Mike awkwardly declares

My Own Private Idaho.(1991) | Films & Art