MILK
MILK
January 13-14 2009, DVD, home, from library
Now that's what I'm talking about! This is the right kind of Oscar-bait! This film should almost definitely have gotten Best Picture, but SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE was probably deemed more uplifting, and Hollywood's more comfortable promoting downtrodden brown folks than defiantly fighting queers cut down before their time. I have yet to see SLUMDOG but I have a really hard time believing it could be better than MILK. MILK is not just an incredible story with excellent performances, it's just a good movie of the type that I don't see often enough. Director and local boy Gus Van Sant has fun with all the possible ways of transmitting information on screen - an overarching narrative from Harvey Milk himself (in the guise of the unbelievably brilliant Sean Penn), archival clippings, archival news footage, a bit of visual whimsy using an actual location, very sexy and romantic love scenes, clever lighting and editing, and a really excellent job of capturing the look at feel of 70's San Francisco (according to the filmmakers; obviously I wasn't there. But I know the neighborhood well enough that I genuinely felt like I was.)
Sean Penn is a revelation as Milk. He made me fall hopelessly in love with the guy. I've been interested in his story for a good long time, but I never felt like I really knew anything; now I feel like I understand the man himself, with all his attendant flaws and fuckups as well as his brightly burning ambition. Also, he's just adorable, simultaneously fey and no-bullshit, given to the occasional coquettish giggle as much as he can be an ice-cold cross-examiner and effortlessly effective orator. FanTAStic. Yes, the Best Actor Oscar was so totally his, very much deserved. Joining him as his steadiest lover and first campaign manager Scott Smith is my personal darling James Franco; he goes from a teenage dreamboat Tim Buckley lookalike to a well-groomed but ultimately abandoned adult, but one who never really gives up on his love for that wackjob Harvey. As Milk's later loverboy Jack, Diego Luna is hot like fire, and portrays the kind of "unstable" that's all too easy to just play off. Then there's Josh Brolin, who kicks somewhat less ass here than in NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN; as Milk and Moscone's murderer Dan White, I'm sure it was a terrible challenge to portray a man so tangled up with bitterness, jealousy, and insecurity that he'd calmly go to City Hall and kill two men in cold blood. I mean, how do you show something like that? Still, he does a pretty good job. Also making welcome appearances are Victor Garber as the similarly doomed Mayor Moscone, who seemed like a pretty cool guy; and "Speed Racer Ruined My Career" hottie Emile Hirsch as the rabble-rousing, bespectacled Cleve Jones. Emile doesn't entirely know how to "play gay", and his clumsy attempts to do so simultaneously don't work and kind of work brilliantly at the same time, like some green Commie kid from Phoenix who occasionally apes the mannerisms of those around him, but hasn't quite gotten it himself. Perfect.
I cried about ten times watching this movie - and only sometimes for the shame of the loss of Harvey Milk. Mostly it was joy and wonder that someone stood up to the status quo and told the world that it shouldn't be that way. I did cry when I thought of where Harvey Milk would be today if he hadn't been assassinated. I don't like to believe in martyrs, but dammit, Milk is pretty close to a personal saint that I can pray to. But he didn't die for my "sins"; he simply refused to hide or stay quiet. And that, my friends, is beautiful.
January 13-14 2009, DVD, home, from library
Now that's what I'm talking about! This is the right kind of Oscar-bait! This film should almost definitely have gotten Best Picture, but SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE was probably deemed more uplifting, and Hollywood's more comfortable promoting downtrodden brown folks than defiantly fighting queers cut down before their time. I have yet to see SLUMDOG but I have a really hard time believing it could be better than MILK. MILK is not just an incredible story with excellent performances, it's just a good movie of the type that I don't see often enough. Director and local boy Gus Van Sant has fun with all the possible ways of transmitting information on screen - an overarching narrative from Harvey Milk himself (in the guise of the unbelievably brilliant Sean Penn), archival clippings, archival news footage, a bit of visual whimsy using an actual location, very sexy and romantic love scenes, clever lighting and editing, and a really excellent job of capturing the look at feel of 70's San Francisco (according to the filmmakers; obviously I wasn't there. But I know the neighborhood well enough that I genuinely felt like I was.)
Sean Penn is a revelation as Milk. He made me fall hopelessly in love with the guy. I've been interested in his story for a good long time, but I never felt like I really knew anything; now I feel like I understand the man himself, with all his attendant flaws and fuckups as well as his brightly burning ambition. Also, he's just adorable, simultaneously fey and no-bullshit, given to the occasional coquettish giggle as much as he can be an ice-cold cross-examiner and effortlessly effective orator. FanTAStic. Yes, the Best Actor Oscar was so totally his, very much deserved. Joining him as his steadiest lover and first campaign manager Scott Smith is my personal darling James Franco; he goes from a teenage dreamboat Tim Buckley lookalike to a well-groomed but ultimately abandoned adult, but one who never really gives up on his love for that wackjob Harvey. As Milk's later loverboy Jack, Diego Luna is hot like fire, and portrays the kind of "unstable" that's all too easy to just play off. Then there's Josh Brolin, who kicks somewhat less ass here than in NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN; as Milk and Moscone's murderer Dan White, I'm sure it was a terrible challenge to portray a man so tangled up with bitterness, jealousy, and insecurity that he'd calmly go to City Hall and kill two men in cold blood. I mean, how do you show something like that? Still, he does a pretty good job. Also making welcome appearances are Victor Garber as the similarly doomed Mayor Moscone, who seemed like a pretty cool guy; and "Speed Racer Ruined My Career" hottie Emile Hirsch as the rabble-rousing, bespectacled Cleve Jones. Emile doesn't entirely know how to "play gay", and his clumsy attempts to do so simultaneously don't work and kind of work brilliantly at the same time, like some green Commie kid from Phoenix who occasionally apes the mannerisms of those around him, but hasn't quite gotten it himself. Perfect.
I cried about ten times watching this movie - and only sometimes for the shame of the loss of Harvey Milk. Mostly it was joy and wonder that someone stood up to the status quo and told the world that it shouldn't be that way. I did cry when I thought of where Harvey Milk would be today if he hadn't been assassinated. I don't like to believe in martyrs, but dammit, Milk is pretty close to a personal saint that I can pray to. But he didn't die for my "sins"; he simply refused to hide or stay quiet. And that, my friends, is beautiful.