Milk Shows Penn's Explosive Work

Rating: 8/10 (18 January 2009)

What constantly pops off the screen as cinema gold in the new film Milk is the film's star Sean Penn. It is completely save to say that Sean Penn is Milk. Penn seems boundless in his depiction of Harvey Milk, who was an affable, magnetic guy, capable of picking up a longtime boyfriend with a proposition on the subway platform and attracting a cabal of young energetic men when he opened up a camera shop in San Francisco's Castro Street. As you can imagine, the neighborhood was turning to the gay side of life at the time.
Gus Van Sant directs in a very stylized manner that puts a nostalgic haze over the film that Dustin Lance Black has scripted out. The film touches on being a run of the mill biopic but the driving force that moves us is Sean Penn with a little help from Emile Hirsh who leads an energetic cross section of supporters injecting youth into the cause.
As with any biopic, the circumstances and those around it feel deeply about it. It would be easy for the movie to be ordinary. These characters come forward with new zeal and total commitment for these characters. That combined with Penn's over the top channelling of Harvey Milk is exactly what this film needed and got. Fascinating movie! ***/****.
 The posters are again very head shot oriented. Someone needs to take a chance besides the Indie films.