I’m always surprised that Stand By Me has been forgotten so quickly, to say nothing of My Own Private Idaho. The former seems evergreen to me, although I know kids today don’t romanticize the 1950s… I mean, Kiefer Sutherland doing his ‘80s villain thing! Wil Wheaton before everyone started to hate him! Jerry O’Connell as the fat little kid who grew up to bang Rebecca Romijn! Corey Feldman before Corey Feldman’s life happened to him! The most beloved Stephen King property that no one bothered to read! It’s got it all.
I can see how the latter would be more complicated, though. My Own Private Idaho was the difficult follow up to Gus Van Sant’s previous difficult film, Drugstore Cowboy… and made all the more difficult at the time because it was a gay auteur trying to sell a movie about pretty-boy street hustlers. Today I suppose it’s still difficult because Van Sant cast two straight actors as his leads. But it was a landmark back in the day, and presaged what was coming from River before that day at The Viper Room ended it all.
Yeah, his childhood and brief adulthood were disasters… but he’s one of those what-could-have-been people. Hard drugs and Johnny Depp… they should be avoided, kids.