Loosely-based on Shakespeare's Henry IV, Gus Van Saint’s 1991 movie is a queer classic featuring River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves as a pair of gay hustlers who travel from grungy Portland, Oregon to Italy on a journey of sex, drugs and self-discovery.

Screening as part of SLACKER SHAKESPEARE, a season of 1990s indie cult movie classics, inspired by the world of William Shakespeare. These events are part of RIO FOREVER and are sponsored by FIVE POINTS Brewing. 

There was far more to the 1990s than Kurt Cobain, Brit Pop and Oasis. Indie cinema boomed and smart movie makers took on the classics, the decade seeing a run of original, outrageous and brilliantly subversive adaptations of William Shakespeare’s plays, and films inspired by his works. Think Romeo at a rave, Miranda in Ibiza, Ophelia on prozac, Hamlet hanging loose, Barditry in a beanie hats, and Shakespeare as a slacker in a plaid shirt and converse and the action coming out of Silverlake rather than Stratford Upon Avon... 

This screening is introduced by season curator, author and cultural commentator Travis Elborough.