Among Portland’s most prominent local celebrities is Gus Van Sant, a leading New Queer Cinema voice whose early works were filmed across Oregon, often in the Rose City itself. My Own Private Idaho ...

Two years before a drug overdose ended River Phoenix's life in 1993, the dreamboat poeticized a tortured gay street hustler with gutting sorrow in out director Gus Van Sant's groundbreaking ...

It’s been 20 years and we still can’t quit Ang Lee’s sweeping cowboy romance Brokeback Mountain, this heart-wrenching tale of forbidden love in the Montana outback. But tucked away in the history of ...

Joe Apollonio is not your average Joe. The queer, NYC-based actor and comedian has been steadily racking up credits over the past decade, appearing in TV favorites like Hacks, Betty, and Young Sheldon ...

"My Own Private Idaho" developed a cult following, in part because the troubled life — and tragic death — of its star, River Phoenix, mirrored so closely that of the character he played in the movie.

In the second episode of “Variety Confidential: The Life and Legend of River Phoenix,” the podcast shifts its focus from the actor’s explosive rise to the pivotal moment when his life began to unravel ...