Utterly powerful

Rating: 9/10 (14 December 2008)

I'm usually pretty lukewarm on the kind of movies that are generally considered for Oscars. I expected to not think all that much of Milk, but it exceeded my expectations. Gus Van Sant's first mainstream film since Finding Forrester is about the first gay man publicly elected in San Francisco, Harvey Milk, a gay rights advocate often referred to as the Mayor of Castro Street. Sean Penn dominates the film as Milk, and gives perhaps the best performance of his career. I haven't seen Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler yet, but my initial reaction to Penn's performance is that there is no way he'll not win the Oscar. From the previews, I was kind of thinking Penn's performance would end up seeming like a caricature and impersonation, but, while watching the film, I felt like he instantly faded into this character. It's a cliché, but I really felt like I was watching Harvey Milk, not Sean Penn. The rest of the cast is fantastic as well, especially Josh Brolin as Dan White, Milk's fellow city council member and frequent rival. And eventual assassinator. The relationship between these two men is one of the best aspects of the movie. This story is overwhelmingly powerful at times. There were little things I didn't care for, like the framing structure (Milk is narrating it from one of the last days of his life), but they hardly put a dent in the movie. Gus Van Sant's direction is good, if not as good as in his recent art films (I would rank his direction in Paranoid Park, which currently ranks #10 on my 2008 list, above his direction here). But I commend him greatly for finally, after years of trying, getting Milk's story up on the big screen. It's a movie that must be seen.