Cast: Sean Penn, James Franco, Josh Brolin, Emile Hirsch, Diego Luna

Director: Gus Van Sant

Screenplay: Dustin Lance Black

Running time: 2 hrs 8 mins

Genre: Drama/Biopic



CRITIQUE:

Character biopics like Milk reek of a material that could have descended between camp or kitsch, or both – except this one doesn’t. That director Gus Van Sant is certainly not an average Hollywood director, saving this Harvey Milk biopic with a flush of ace filmmaking. Seesawing between mainstream and indie, Milk is rightly deserved as his mainstream comeback after the highly-successful Good Will Hunting. For a movie that is centred on a certain controversial era, there is barely a newsreel montage with hits-of-the-decade soundtrack, and rather shows us to Sean Penn’s Milk, the first openly gay politician in the States, and his meeting with his lover Scott Smith (a spot-on James Franco in an unpretentious performance) where he announces with despondence in his fortieth birthday that he “never done anything in my life.” In the moment of his assassination ten years later (it’s not a spoiler, everyone knows what happened to this bloke), there is a flashback to this moment where the core of this film glows with poignancy, that he wasn’t a man who had entirely done nothing but became a trailblazing voice for the homosexuals, both gays and lesbians, and inspired a political revolution in the 70s. Its resonating power is on the scene of America right now with the infamous Proposition 8, quietly nailing its resounding echo. The villains of this film are not brought to actor personas, but were maintained as newsreel icons, making them more intimidating and detached.


A warm kudos then to Sean Penn who completely disappeared into the role of Harvey Milk, a testament to this outstanding actor who can necessarily, and effortlessly, adopt mannerisms and certain tics of this political character. Yet he doesn’t make Harvey Milk swelling with a splendid caricature: he sleeps around, drinks, smokes and swears, making him a wholly tangible human being. He is supported by an incredibly adept cast: the unrecognizable Emile Hirsch under the curly wig of Cleve Jones, a quietly restrained, enigmatic performance by Josh Brolin as the family-man pragmatist Dan White, and a depressed Jack Lira played by Diego Luna. Come Oscar hour, here’s the prediction, that golden man statue will be decided between Sean Penn and Mickey Rourke of The Wrestler.


RATING:

This film about the 70s homosexual humanist/activist Harvey Milk skilfully illustrates how-not-to-make clichéd biopics. Amen to Gus Van Sant’s artistic direction and Sean Penn’s galvanising performance that both shows compassion to this material. Milk has also one of the best acting ensembles of the year, mind.



RATING: A-