In the first of our new Spotlight episodes, where we'll be focusing on one film during a slightly shorter show, this week we're talking about a movie that celebrates its 30th birthday this year, Gus Van Sant's MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO. 

It's a road movie, a riff on Shakespeare’s Henry IV and an essential text of queer cinema (and did we mention it stars River Phoenix as a sensitive narcoleptic who dreams of the mother who abandoned him and Keanu Reeves as the wayward son of a big city mayor, both on a quest along the grungy streets and open highways, in search of an elusive place called home? Well it does.) 

MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO is a deeply moving look at unrequited love and life on society’s margins, and there's never been a better time to revisit this visually dazzling and thematically groundbreaking film.

(Don't worry... we're doing STARSHIP TROOPERS next).