Best Keanu: “It feels too good. It’s going to turn to shit.”

About a half hour into Feeling Minnesota, Jjaks Clayton, who is played by Keanu Reeves, steals a dog. It’s a handsome chocolate lab not unsimilar in demeanour to the dog John Wick would steal from a shelter (or hospital, or city pound, who knows) some 18 years later.

And that’s about all I have to say about this film, other than it’s quietly enjoyable. Even more so now, in 2023, than it probably was for audiences in 1996. It has a tight script and doesn’t try to use its “independent film” leeway to overtly shock or make a point. It’s clean, a bit out of sorts occasionally, but always lands in the right place.

Cameron Diaz is in this. She looks very young, and so does Keanu, which seems odd when you realize that it’s already in the mid-1990s; this is Keanu post-Point Break, post-Speed, but still showing up in quiet independent fare.

That’s the sense you get of Keanu in this film: that he’s an actor, committed to filmmaking. This is not a star turn for any of the cast members, and the cast here is substantial: Diaz, Keanu, Vincent D’Onofrio, and Dan Aykroyd. The credits reveal that the Sundance Institute supported the film, which is a hint it wasn’t some random independent feature that had scraped together funds. This was a sanctioned independent movie, and it shows.

Courtney Love is in this, too, suitably cast as a diner waitress in exactly three scenes. Levon Helm, music royalty if you know anything about 70s bands and, more specifically, The Band. He’s a bible salesman at the very end who offers Jjaks a ride to Las Vegas.

An interesting historical note: In a relatively early scene Sam Clayton, Jjaks’ estranged brother, bites off part of Jjaks’ ear. I paused the film to Google whether this was before or after the famous Evander Holyfield-Mike Tyson bout where Tyson did the same. Turns out the movie predates the real life incident by about a year, give or take. But I suppose in boxing or in fictional caustic sibling relationships, the possibility of ear biting is… on the table, if not exactly welcome.

Jjaks has a loud orgasm early in the film which, like with the chocolate lab, made me wonder if I should start a list of common, tiny plot points in Keanu movies. Heading 1: Movies where Keanu’s character steals a dog: a) John Wick; b) Feeling Minnesota. Heading 2: Movies where Keanu’s character has a vocal orgasm: a) Destination Wedding; b) Feeling Minnesota.

And so on.

Feeling Minnesota is, ultimately, an easy watch. None of the characters are pure but in a way you sort of root for them all. There’s nice, balanced pacing, as if it was workshopped as part of a film class. Keanu fits the role. His acting is strong. You don’t end the movie with a feeling of frustration or disappointment; just one of satisfaction that the filmmakers had done a perfectly fine job.

Plus there’s a dog. Did I mention the dog?

April 2023