EW review: 'Private Idaho' exposed
By Dalton Ross
Entertainment Weekly
(Entertainment Weekly) -- There's a scene in Gus Van Sant's warped buddy road flick in which River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves, playing male prostitutes in search of their respective pasts and futures, sit alone at a campfire.
It's straight out of a John Ford movie. That is, until Phoenix's character, Mike, tells Reeves' Scott, ''I really want to kiss you, man.'' (So much for the John Wayne moment.)
In a film that deals with sin, Shakespeare and the dangers of narcolepsy, this painfully real reminder of unrequited love hits home the hardest.
While you may enjoy watching "My Own Private Idaho," whether you choose to view this two-disc Criterion edition in its entirety depends on how much you enjoy watching people talking about "My Own Private Idaho."
And sometimes just listening to them, like when Van Sant sits down for a two-hour interview with filmmaker Todd Haynes ("Far From Heaven"). At least I assume he's sitting -- hard to know with only a still-menu screen to look at.
Lack of visual stimulation notwithstanding, it's an easygoing and enlightening chat, punctuated with such probing questions as ''How did you get a film that started with a boy getting a b--- job financed?''
You'd think those two hours would cover it all. But there are five other extras (totaling more than two and a half hours) with crew, friends, family and historians giving their takes on the Henry IV-meets-homo hustler tale. There's also a 64-page booklet of interviews and essays, just in case you haven't had your fill.
Overkill? Perhaps. But with all the various interpretations and influences, this is definitely a film worth talking about. And talking about ...
EW Grade: A-
'The Brady Bunch: The Complete First Season'
Reviewed by Joshua Rich
''You have to enter a specific kind of mental space when you watch the show,'' says Christopher Knight (a.k.a. Peter) on "The Brady Bunch: The Complete First Season."
True, true. Even folks who tuned in during "Brady's" original run (how I've envied them all these years!) must have found the sugary series strange to swallow at a time when X-rated movies were winning Oscars and Vietnam dominated the evening news.
No wonder the Shakespearean-reared Robert Reed suffered so!
But on second -- well, more like 102nd -- viewing, he's the one who shines here, in the show's purest, most high-jinks-free installments (Tiger runs away, Marcia gets braces, Greg's hot for teacher, etc.).
Extras: With so much already out there, it's hard to complain about a dearth of bonus features. Still, the transfer is so crisp that you can see creases in the backyard AstroTurf.
Understates Barry Williams (Greg) in one of his two fun, self-mocking commentaries with Knight and Susan Olsen (Cindy): ''I can't behave our show never won an Emmy!'' One of history's great injustices.
EW Grade: A-
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