Gus Van Sant films are like amateur chemistry experiments. Sometimes when you mix certain elements together, it creates something beautiful andmagical, and other times, it just blows up in your face. There is not muchmiddle ground in Van Sant’s style of filmmaking; people tend to either love it or loathe it. Although the quality of his films may not be consistent, the admirable thing about everything he does, whether big-budget studio films (“Good Will Hunting,” “Psycho”) or small independent ones (“Drugstore Cowboy,” “My Own Private Idaho”), is they all share one common element — risk.
Throughout October, the Museum of Fine Arts will be showcasing some of the best from Van Sant’s eclectic and daring career as a screenwriter and director, including his rarely screened debut film, “Mala Noche,” a tragic love story involving a homosexual liquor store clerk and a Mexican immigrant who is unable to speak English.
Van Sant became turned on by cinema after seeing films by Andy Warhol and other avant-garde directors, and his passion eventually brought him to Los Angeles. There, he developed a strange interest in the seedier side of Hollywood, its alienated and desperate characters serving as inspiration for much of his early work.
His break-out film came in 1989 with his critically acclaimed sophomore effort, “Drugstore Cowboy,” starring Matt Dillon and Kelly Lynch as outlaw, pharmacy-robbing junkies in 1970’s Oregon. Van Sant uses his subject matter perfectly, as he injects life, humor and gritty realism into his desperate characters, avoiding most “junkie” clichés, while creating a raw and original film.
His follow-up, “My Own Private Idaho,” is loosely based on Shakespeare’s “Henry IV,” converting Falstaff and Prince Henry into male prostitutes played by Keanu Reeves and River Phoenix. Phoenix’s performance as a lonely, narcoleptic drifter who pines for the Reeves character received much critical praise, and the film established the openly gay Van Sant as the “spokesman for alienated homosexuals and disaffected youth in general,” according to a MFA press release.
The second half of Van Sant’s career has showcased his efforts in more mainstream projects, such as the witty and satiric “To Die For.” Written by the great Buck Henry (“The Graduate”), the film stars Nicole Kidman in a Golden Globe-winning performance as a seductive local weather girl who aspires for fame and coerces to murder. His other mainstream success, “Good Will Hunting,” received several Oscar nominations, including Van Sant’s first for Best Director.
Van Sant’s newest release marks his return to daring and audacious cinema. “Gerry” stars Matt Damon and Casey Affleck, who also co-wrote the script.
The film is a slow, existential experiment in which Van Sant, who even dares to photograph a sunset in real time, tells the story of two drifters, both named Gerry, who get lost while on a hike and roam the desert aimlessly.
Whether it be adapting Shakespeare or remaking Hitchcock, Van Sant’s films try to take viewers to places where others wouldn’t dream of going. It may not always be where the audience wants to go, but Van Sant is never afraid to take a risk.