Phoenix remembered

River Phoenix died five years ago, and it is a sign of the iconic status he has achieved since then that the Arts Centre is devoting a season of films to his work. He died rather too young to generate enough films for a whole season though, and so he has been paired up with his friend, and the owner of the club where he spent his last evening, Johnny Depp.

The two actors didn't work together much, but they did share the same rather brave and admirable attitude that it was more important to make interesting films than Hollywood blockbusters that would make them stars.

It is hard to imagine Phoenix doing what his co-star in the opening film, My Own Private Idaho, Keanu Reeves has done: blockbusters like Speed, and Chain Reaction.

In My Own Private Idaho, Phoenix plays Mike, a narcoleptic rent boy who teams up with the son of the local town mayor who decides he wants to shock his father. The pair set off to search for Mike's mother, the woman he dreams about, who abandoned him years before.

Gus Van Sant attempted to make the second half of the story a kind of contemporary, gay version of Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1, and Phoenix at least gives the impression that he understands the references. My Own Private Idaho (tomorrow, 4.15pm, September 22, 8.30pm).

Risque reality Alongside the sumptuous costume dramas favoured by big names like Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige , there is a small but growing number of young mainland directors who are determined to portray contemporary China in all its drab, grubby glory.

One of these is Jia Zhangke, and his first full-length feature will be screened at the Arts Centre this week. Xiao Wu, the eponymous hero of the movie, isn't actually selling himself to all comers, like Mike in My Private Idaho, but the two young men certainly move in the same kind of circles.