Michael Waters is a fictional character in Gus Van Sant's ''

My Own Private Idaho ''My Own Private Idaho'' is a 1991 American independent adventure drama film written and directed by Gus Van Sant, loosely based on Shakespeare's ''Henry IV, Part 1'', '' Henry IV, Part 2'', and ''Henry V''. The story follows two friends, Mike ...

'', portrayed by

River Phoenix River Jude Phoenix (; August 23, 1970 – October 31, 1993) was an American actor, musician and activist. Phoenix grew up in an itinerant family, as the older brother of Rain Phoenix, Joaquin Phoenix, Liberty Phoenix, and Summer Phoenix. He ...

. He is a sensitive, homeless teenage hustler who suffers from

narcolepsy Narcolepsy is a long-term neurological disorder that involves a decreased ability to regulate sleep–wake cycles. Symptoms often include periods of excessive daytime sleepiness and brief involuntary sleep episodes. About 70% of those affect ...

, directly foiling his best friend, Scott Favor ( Keanu Reeves), a type-A personality hustler from a rich, influential family. A vagabond searching for his mother, Mike proclaims himself a "connoisseur of roads" because he has been "tasting roads all islife." Mikey remains one of the defining characters of

New Queer Cinema "New Queer Cinema" is a term first coined by the academic B. Ruby Rich in ''Sight & Sound'' magazine in 1992 to define and describe a movement in queer-themed independent filmmaking in the early 1990s. It is also referred to as the "Queer New W ...

and, due to the impressive critical reception, is a crucial role in River Phoenix's success and influence as an actor. For example, Eric Alan Edwards, one of the film's directors of photography, said that Phoenix "really wore the role" because "he looked like a street kid."

Immediate critical interpretation

Roger Ebert characterizes Mikey as someone who "wants...love and by love what he really means is someone to hold him and care for him. He was deeply damaged as a child, and now he seeks shelter; it is a matter of indifference whether he finds it with a man or a woman." ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' called Mikey "good-looking, none-too-bright...hapless...hustler" is "the product of a dramatically dysfunctional family" and who, due to his narcolepsy, is often "overwhelmed by sleep." ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' praised Phoenix's approach to Mikey's character, claiming that he "brings an extraordinary quality of comic pathos to his character... he slouches through the movie, a walking blur, seemingly only half awake, but fully engaged." David Ansen of ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely ...

'' praised Phoenix's performance, saying that "Phoenix immerses himself so deeply inside his character you almost forget you've seen him before: it's a stunningly sensitive performance, poignant and comic at once."

Scholarly interpretation

Mark Adnum calls Mikey "a one-man gay Hall of Fame...hustler outlaw, a cigarette constantly in mouth, living on cola and amphetamines" who is "even dressed as a Dutch sailor at one point, replete with

Querelle ''Querelle'' is a 1982 West German-French English-language arthouse film directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder and starring Brad Davis, adapted from French author Jean Genet's 1947 novel ''Querelle of Brest''. It was Fassbinder's last film, rel ...

’s pom-pom hat" and also "keeps an elastic umbilical cord to his Midwestern home which he occasionally visits but can no longer relate to." In "New Queer White Cinema," Daniel Mudie Cunningham claims that Mike exists on the margins of society, outside conventional employment, and beyond the social institutions of marriage and family." Mike, Cunningham writes, is "queer

white trash White trash is a derogatory racial and class-related slur used in American English to refer to poor white people, especially in the rural southern United States. The label signifies a social class inside the white population and especially a ...

" while Scott Favor, is "gay for cash." In this way, Mike is an unlikely character to be the protagonist of the film—he is queer, homeless, relatively passive, and disabled. Thus, "My Own Private Idaho" presented a new, complex type of hero. The film is characterized by Mikey's "internal actions." Throughout the film, the audience is "presented with brief clips which indicate his thoughts and feelings." The timeless quality of the film—a mixture of flashbacks, flash-forwards, and the present—is due to Mike's narcolepsy and subsequent memory loss as well as the persistent yearning he has for his childhood.

Reception

River Phoenix was awarded the

Volpi Cup for Best Actor The Volpi Cup for Best Actor ( it, Coppa Volpi per la migliore interpretazione maschile) is the principal award given to actors at the Venice Film Festival and is named in honor of Count Giuseppe Volpi di Misurata, the founder of the Venice Film ...

at the 1991 Venice Film Festival for his role as Michael. The actor said, in regards to the award: "I don't want more awards. Venice is the most progressive festival. Anything else would be a token." In addition, 21-year-old River became the Best Actor runner-up from the 1991 New York Film Critics Circle and won Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead and

National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor The National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor is an annual award given by the National Society of Film Critics to honor the best leading actor of the year. Winners * † = Winner of the Academy Award for Best Actor * ‡ = Nominated ...

, becoming the second-youngest winner of the former.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Waters, Mikey Drama film characters Fictional characters from Idaho Film characters introduced in 1991 Fictional gay males Fictional male prostitutes Fictional drug addicts Narcolepsy in fiction Fictional LGBT characters in film Male characters in film Teenage characters in film Fictional homeless people