MILK
MILK
Opens at the Nugget on Friday, Jan 30
Cast: Sean Penn, Emile Hirsch, James Franco, Josh Brolin, Diego Luna, Kelvin Yu, Lucas Grabeel, Alison Pill, Victor Garber, Denis O’Hare
Director: Gus Van Sant
Screenplay: Dustin Lance Black
Length: 2:08
Rated: R for profanity, sexual situations and violence
Subtitles: none
Eight Academy Award Noms: Best Film, Director (Gus Van Sant), Actor (Sean Penn), Supporting Actor (Josh Brolin), Original Screenplay, Costume Design, Editing and Music Score.
What’s MILK about? This entertaining biography re-creates the San Francisco of the late 60’s and 70’s and tells the story of gay activist and politician Harvey Milk (Sean Penn), who was assassinated in 1978, along with Mayor George Moscone, by a fellow-politician, the family-values conservative Dan White (Josh Brolin). This righteous march of events is warmed by the talk, the casual sex, and the candor of the gay milieu in the giddy seventies, the period just before AIDS, when life was free and easy. Penn inhabits and becomes Milk as he stays calm and directed, but the passion and humor of the time are always evident. Without overdoing it, Penn creates a new body, a new temperament: he loosens his neck and shoulders and swivels his head; his smile is enormous and all-embracing; he holds an elbow out and pumps a forearm up and down as Harvey speaks in public. Brolin, a Blagojevich rug of hair lying across his forehead, gives White a thick-headed, confused manner, a tormented neediness.
Who is MILK for? Fans of great writing and acting, period films and those looking for well told story. Although MILK is a movie about a gay man it’s not a gay movie.
Quotes from MILK: “If it were true that children emulate their teachers, we’d have a lot more nuns running around” and “All men are created equal. No matter how hard you try, you can never erase those words.” Harvey Milk
What’s being said about MILK? “Milk feels like an important picture, but not in a way that makes it tedious to watch. There’s no pretentious sheen to the proceedings. In fact, the essential story is comprised of basic elements: the triumph of the underdog, David vs. Goliath, and the American tragedy of a strong voice silenced too soon. Knowing how the story ends merely emphasizes the importance of the steps taken to get to that point. Van Sant is cognizant of the film’s political applicability to current events, but chose to release the film after Election Day rather than have it pigeonholed as propaganda whose entire purpose was to sway voters. For those who are not dissuaded by the homosexual subject matter, Milk represents a thought provoking, cathartic, and mostly true tale of politics and courage.” James Berardinelli at Reelviews.com
See the MILK trailer/preview here: http://www.apple.com/trailers/focus_features/milk/