My Own Private Idaho

Debut: 1991
Director: Gus Van Sant
Starring: River Phoenix, Keanu Reeves

I was pretty into this one, I'd have to say. The story just follows two males prostitutes on their excursions - in particular, Phoenix's character's quest to find his birth mother.

The thing that really made this film interesting was that it kind of gets you thinking about prostitution, and not really in any sort of bad way. It really seems to get inside what gets prostitutes into prostitution, and in reality, I guess I came out of it thinking that most prostitutes aren't so bad. Watching the film, you kind of realize that sex for a prostitute really isn't what the rest of the world places it up on a pedestal for - that for a prostitute it's meaningless and cheap. It sort of makes you think that we should probably shame those who go to prostitutes more than the prostitutes themselves.

Well, that's maybe a little more philosophical than the movie intended (perhaps not with Gus Van Sant at the helm...) but the movie was interesting and fascinating enough.