Who was Harvey Milk? Well, before this film was released, I doubt that many had even heard of the man. He was a revolutionary in civil rights, and he was the first openly gay man elected to office. His career was cut short, however, when a depressed rival, Dan White, assassinated Milk and San Francisco mayor George Moscone. The film was nominated for eight Oscars, and won two, including Best Actor (Sean Penn) and Best Original Screenplay (Dustin Lance Black).
The film plays as a kind of scrapbook of memories at first and begins with Harvey (Sean Penn) sitting at a dinner table telling his story should he be assassinated. Then we travel back where he met his first lover, Scott (James Franco, Pineapple Express). And in less than 45 seconds, we see the two jumping around in bed. Okay, let’s pause there. Since when did any viewer want to see bed hopping between two strangers? Never, I believe. I can totally see the merit when they got into a deep, meaningful relationship, but cruising is one of those things that is not only frowned upon in the public’s eye, but also in the film critic’s.
After moving from New York to San Francisco (specifically the well known Castro Street), Harvey decides that the government needs some help in that discrimination area. People like Anita Bryant are pushing hard to ban rights for gay people. She’s in for trouble. After losing four times, the man Harvey Milk finally gets elected to office. His rival, a depressed Dan White who is having trouble with dealing with a gay man, decides to do the worst thing possible and assassinate Milk and Mayor Moscone (Vincent Garber). Dan White was sentenced with manslaughter because of the “Twinkie Defense”. He served five years in prison, and the backlash of what little time he got in prison created the White Night riots, the most violent riots for gay rights in history.
The film is rather light for a dark subject. It’s filled with several funny moments and very endearing moments. Sean Penn, who previously won the Oscar for Mystic River has been in so many dramatic films where he grimaces, it’s a nice change to see him smile. .But the fact is when you watch the film, it’s not really Penn, and it seems more like the spirit of Milk. Dustin Lance Black (writer for the Showtime series Big Love), the writer, manages to keep a good consistency between flash back and present time, but as the film progresses to where he is in office, it gets a little lost in that story telling mode, as if trying to find what to do next. Josh Brolin (2007 Best Picture winner No Country for Old Men) makes a great Dan White, almost the sympathetic Judas of Jesus Christ Superstar. You don’t feel sympathy exactly, but more empathy. Gus Van Sant directs the film with a very breezy ease, making the marches and riots seem like the history and not the cinema. A very good film that shows the power of a man’s dream. I personally think that Penn won the Best Actor Oscar because of the then recent Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage. Had that not happened, I think it would have gone to Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler.
Grade: A-
Honestly, in this economy, I don’t think it’s comforting seeing two attractive leads try to get away with $40 million. And to make matters worse, the two corporate rivals seem as ruthless as AIG or those other nutcases who’ve been asking for bailouts. But the film plays out well anyway, no matter how uncomfortable it may make you.
The team who brought you the stop-motion animation masterpiece The Nightmare Before Christmas is back delivering a terrifying but fantastic film yet again. Neil Gaiman’s wonderfully eerie children’s book hits the screen in a big way, and works great as a SMA movie. I imagine that a live action version would not be as convincingly scary.
Can you think of am exciting storyline? Does it involve two men? Two men talking to each other? Well, if that’s not your idea of a great film, you may want
As psychologically interesting it is to see what a father would do to save his daughter, I don’t really want to see something like that actually happen. Alas, the new action film “Taken” practically rubs that in your face in the TV spots.
Guns are everywhere. It’s another sad truth. We have six year olds playing Grand Theft Auto, hijacking cars, and shooting cops every weekend for fun. We have news stories about people taking their AK-47 to their school rooftop and, in a vulgar sense, going postal. But in a society where violence is omnipresent, you have to get over it. 
It is deathly depressing, but we live in a world where there are hundreds of people who go to see the newest horror movie simply to see someone get chopped up right one right after the other. There are crowds of perfectly sane human beings going to see torture porn films and treat them like strange marvels of the cinema. These films, films such as Hostel, Saw (not the first one, though), and similar straight-to-DVD rip offs offer the same crowd new ways to get their kicks to beheadings and splatters. So what does Darren Lynn Bousman, the man who made a particularly chilling suspense film into the crappiest franchise called the Saw series, decide to offer this world in need of smart and scary films? A torture porn musical! What a brilliant idea! A horror musical, some bizarre hybrid of one laughable genre and one mystical genre. That is all we needed. He decided to make a weird off-Broadway “opera” into a movie and while the original already had salacious language and blood in it, Mr. Bousman added his Saw II flair by adding blood, blood, gore, gore, and even more blood and gore.
The winners of the 81st Academy Awards:
They say there are three subjects you should never speak of in public or with strangers: religion, sex, or politics. Religulous, the new documentary from the director of Borat, is about the first of the three taboos, as you can tell by its almost-at-first-glance-unpronounceable title. Bill Maher, a self-proclaimed non-believer/atheist/comedian hails the documentary with quick wittedness. They go from place to place interviewing people on religion. Their religion, the religion of others, crazy religions, irrational terms that people use in religion, and even a marihuana religion. Luckily, our host isn’t some weirdo going out of his way to offend people without knowing what he’s talking about. At least he’s read his stuff. Not only do they talk about what may be assumed as the main target of Christianity, but he also has discussions with Muslims. He can be a little rough and make jokes that you will undoubtedly frown or wince at, but by the next interview you’re laughing too hard to remember why you were offended. It is enjoyable, albeit a little mean to watch people flabbergasted by the questions put for this by the guy. And sometimes, when they spot who Mr. Maher actually is, the people will throw him out. Why? Probably because they’re too afraid to defend their religion. It’s a very interesting and funny documentary. The one problem is that anyone who sees this and actually knows what it’s about is already, for lack of a better word, “converted”. I do wish that some of my overly zealous friends watch this documentary with an open mind. Do I agree with everything Bill Maher says in this feature? No, but what I believe is irrelovant. Bill Maher isn’t really telling us to leave our religion; he’s merely bringing up questions that could in turn inspire a very passionate conversation…if people were secure enough to discuss it without acting as rashly as some have. He’s also asking us to wise up and notice the flaws of man. The film, an enjoyable hour and forty minutes, ends on a low note. This is not a bad low note, but note as high and as light hearted as the film had been. But the end result is rather satisfying. It will offend you but if you’re smart enough, you’ll engage in a conversation with someone soon as to why they are so faithful to who ever they worship.