‘James Dean has got nothing on that kid’: River Phoenix films – ranked!

River Phoenix as young Indiana Jones in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) . Photograph: Landmark Media/Alamy

16. Circle of Violence: A Family Drama (1986)

Issue-of-the-week TV movie about elder abuse, with Tuesday Weld as a harried mum taking out her frustrations on her own ageing mother. Phoenix slaps on the hair gel as the essentially decent son who blasts his music too loud, lets his rowdy if unusually spiffy pals put their feet on the furniture and resents the new house guest: “Grandma is really getting on my nerves!”