Extremely well acted drama.

Rating: 8/10 (30 March 2009)

Harvey Milk (Two time Oscar-Winner Sean Penn) is a forty year old gay man living in New York City with his lover Scott (James Franco). They decided to move in San Francisco in the early 1970's. They moved to Castro street to open a camera shop but they welcome the gay community as well in a time, when the police were extremely brutal to homosexuals. Slowly Harvey changes the community and tries to run for office in the city. After a few failures, he finally succeed to supervisor in the city and successfully changing a few laws including gay rights for the first time in history. But a homophobic politician named Dan White (Josh Brolin), who works for the Mayor George Moscone (Victor Garber). He doesn't like the changes of Harvey that gives in the city. Dan will do anything to ruin Harvey's choices.
Directed by Gus Van Sant (Drugstone Cowboy, Psycho "1998", To Die For) made an intriguing fact based drama on a true story. Penn is extraordinary good in his second Oscar-Winning performance as a charismatic gay rights leader. The cast are really strong here... especially Emile Hirsch, Brolin in a Oscar nominated role, Franco, Diego Luna as Harvey's second unstable lover and Alison Pill as Harvey's loyal assistant. It was one of the most critically acclaimed movies of 2008. Van Sant keeps things movies and it feels like a documentary at times but perhaps the film never really achieved greatness as some viewers would expected. Excellent performances are the high point here.
The DVD has an sharp anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1) transfer and an good Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. The DVD includes deleted scenes and three featurettes. "Milk" is certainly a good film, it's memorable for Penn's lead role and a subject matter that is still important today. Dustin Lance Black won an Oscar for his work for Best Original Screenplay. It was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Costume Design, Film Editing and Best Original Score by Danny Elfman (Batman, Dolores Claiborne, Red Dragon). Which is music score is good and different from most of his work. Despite some flaws, "Milk" is a fine movie that certainly worth a look. (****/*****).