My Own Private Idaho [1991]

My Own Private Idaho is perhaps the crowning achievement of Gus Van Sant, maker of some of the finest independent films in America. The movie follows two male hustlers – Mike, a male prostitute suffering from narcolepsia who is desperate to find his lost mother, and Scott – a rebellious rich kid who has hit the road to escape the constraints imposed for being a wealthy man’s son. However unlike Mike, who will probably have to spend all his life working on the streets along with a bunch of idiosyncratic fellow-hustlers, Scott is ready to step back into a conventional lifestyle after he inherits his money and forget that he ever had anything to do with the people (including his best friend Mike) he is hanging out with. Bravura direction by the indie master, mesmerizing camera work, a thoroughly unconventional narrative and brilliant career making turns by both River Pheonix and Keanu Reaves have made this quirky black comedy and surprisingly poignant human drama, a near poetic (and I must add, wildly convoluted) take on friendship, unrequited love, human alienation and the harshness of life on the road.






Director: Gus Van Sant
Genre: Drama/Black Comedy/Road Movie/Buddy Film
Language: English
Country: US

The Graduate [1967]

One of the most loved movies in film history, Mike Nichols’ seminal work The Graduate bears testimony to a popular saying that good works of art need not be obscure – they might as well be popular and easily appreciable. A brilliantly composed social satire, laced with humour (both deadpan and otherwise) and restrained melodrama, this is certainly one of the finest coming-of-age stories told in motion pictures. The movie made a star out of a young Dustin Hoffman as he became the embodiment of a generation of confused young men trying to make a sense out of their lives. His developing a huge crush for and getting involved in a dangerous affair with an older, married lady Mrs. Robinson (played wonderfully by Anne Bankroft) who happens to be the wife of a close friend of his father, and his subsequent falling in love with her daughter thus earning the spite of the older Robinson lady, makes for hilarious and thoroughly enjoyable viewing. Simon & Garfunkel’s timeless songs “Sounds of Silence” – which happens to be one of my all-time favourites, and “Mrs. Robinson” have also played huge roles in heightening the movie’s lasting impact in popular culture.






Director: Mike Nichols
Genre: Romantic Comedy/Coming of Age/Social Satire/Comedy Drama
Language: English
Country: US