Steamy Streaming: Gus Van Sant
To Die For, My Own Private Idaho, and more...
An auteur filmmaker to the core, Gus Van Sant is known for his uncompromising vision and unrepentant homosexuality. His refusal to conform to societal standards was criticized by squares and embraced by audiences, turning him into an icon of queer filmmaking. He’s even credited as one of the most important members of the New Queer Cinema scene that challenged mainstream culture in the 1990s. Here are some of our favorite Gus Van Sant films:
Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot
Based on the life and career of artist John Callahan, Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot is Van Sant’s latest film, a sincere and sentimental tribute to a man who discovered his passion and learned to love life after being paralyzed in a drunken car accident. Joaquin Phoenix is stunning as the lead character, who regales onlookers with stories full of macabre comedy and unflinching positivity, a unique mix which fits squarely within Van Sant’s delightfully off-kilter wheelhouse.
To Die For
This 1995 classic is a showpiece of both style and substance. Nicole Kidman is one of the most beautiful women of all time, and she’s arguably at her absolute hottest as Suzanne Stone, a self-obsessed journalist who winds up finding the story of a lifetime by creating it herself. To spoil the film’s myriad twists and turns would be a shame, but the black comedy antics are enhanced by the film’s over-the-top sensibilities and various stylistic touches, from fourth-wall breaking monologues to documentary-style interviews. It’s delightfully wacky, but also completely straight, depending on the mood of the viewer.
My Own Private Idaho
Van Sant’s breakout film was also a career-affirming film for its two young stars, Keanu Reeves and River Phoenix. Loosely based on Shakespeare’s Henry IV and Henry V plays, distilled through a filter of queer youth, 1991’s My Own Private Idaho follows Mike and Scott, two young hustlers who find themselves struggling to break free of the nihilistic world they inhabit. River Phoenix would die just two years later
Milk
The finest performance of Sean Penn’s career is easily found in Milk, the 2008 biopic of Harvey Milk, the political activist and kindhearted politician who was senselessly struck down before his time. There are certain people who did so much to change the world and who could have done so much more if they had more time. Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy, John Lennon, and Harvey Milk are just a handful of those people whose effect on the world is only comparable to what could have been had their tragic fates been averted.
Finding Forrester
The legend goes that Rob Brown auditioned for a role in this movie, hoping for nothing more than to earn enough money to pay off his $300 phone bill. He was cast as the lead opposite the great Sean Connery, and the rest is history. Finding Forrester is a beautiful movie about the unifying power of the art of writing, appreciation of literature, and the English language as more than a method of communication, but as an art unto itself. Sean Connery delivers the performance of a lifetime as an aging recluse who finds a kindred spirit in a teenage writer. A mutual exchange of ideas and emotions ensues. It sounds a bit corny, and it is, but endearingly so, anchored by grounded direction from Van Sant and the aforementioned performances.
