okay ink ! i’ve only really seen rio in stand by me & the last crusade, but that needs to change. where do i start ?
MICAH OKAY. OKAY !!! i did my best ok. i’d def at least recommend mopi & roe if nothing else !1. my own private idaho. this is, arguably, his best role. it’s the role that people really . . . commend him for, if that makes sense ? he played a gay sex worker at the height of the aids epidemic, & he actually rewrote a lot of his character’s script in order for it to focus on love rather than sex, & it’s beautiful. sad but beautiful. i bully everyone i can into watching mopi, & i am always here to answer the inevitable questions that pop up after someone watches it. i’ve seen it upwards of 50 times & i notice something new each time. it’s definitely a multiple-watches film to really understand it.
2. running on empty. this got rio an oscar nom at 18 for best supporting actor, & he only lost because a fish called wanda came out the same year, & kevin kline won instead. honestly, tough fuckin’ competition. his character in roe is soft & kind-hearted, but he’s carrying a heavy secret, & the sins of his parents weigh heavily on him. it’s a very character driven film rather than plot-driven, but it’s beautiful, & more heart-warming than mopi. i still cry every time, though. someone once said if they want a good cry they load up the last five minutes of the film, & i feel that.
3. dogfight. it’s set during the vietnam war, & rio plays a young marine getting ready to uh, head off & fight. you know, like, dinner for shmucks / le dîner de cons / that iasip episode where charlie & dee get romantically involved with those rich siblings & get invited to a party but it turns out they’re the butt of the joke & only there because of how dumb they are ? it’s kinda like that . . . originally. he & his friends have a competition to invite the ‘ ugliest girls ’ they can to a bar, but obviously he grows a heart, realises he’s fucked up & genuinely feels some Feelings. it’s really good but, like, i say that about p much all his films so.
4. i love you to death. a dark comedy based on a true story, rio actually filmed this with kevin kline the year after kevin won best supporting actor for afcw. devo is a quiet, pacifistic hippie who is absolutely in love with his boss’ wife, & honestly, this movie is worth watching for some of rio’s reactions tbh. i do have a favourite reaction of his in the film, & maybe i’ll gif it some day ; it makes me laugh literally every time. also, keanu is in this !!
5. the thing called love. rio’s last completed film. he plays james, a sullen singer-songwriter in nashville trying to make it big. but he isn’t the main character – his love interest is. it’s worth the watch because rio sings in it, & he actually wrote some of his songs in the film himself. you can hear them here.6. sneakers. a hacker film he did right after mopi for ‘ something light-hearted ’. it’s worth watching just for his character tbh ; carl is a fuckin blast & i love him. you can see my pinboard for him here.this isn’t really in a specific order, because i kept going no wait what about — !! but these are the ones i’d recommend most ?? then there’s explorers ( his first feature ), silent tongue, the mosquito coast, a night in the life of jimmy reardon, & dark blood which was released in 2012 because he died before filming finished. also i think it’s worth noting that he REALLY wanted to be in dead poets society as neil perry, but wasn’t cast because they wanted someone lesser known, & had mentioned interest in wanting to play jim in a movie adaptation of the basketball diaries ( he had the book ). his favourite movie was also terry gilliam’s brazil, if that means anything, either.
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