Back from the weekend with our review of another best picture nominee: MILK. The film is a biopic and for that reason we're not going to hold back on the summary for this movie, which, per usual is brought to us by IMDB.com: The 1970's story of California's first openly gay elected official, Harvey Milk, a San Francisco supervisor who was assassinated along with Mayor George Moscone by fellow San Francisco Supervisor Dan White.
MILK was not on my list of must see movies this year, until it made the short list for an Oscar. That has to do with my overall bias against Sean Penn. I believe the man is a great actor; I find his personal politics to be a bit over the edge for my tastes, but this is America where anyone can think and do anything within the letter of the law. I'm glad it ended up on my radar, because it fed my two interests in film (no Ted, not naked wrestling): historical significance and great acting.
The film itself is nominated for 8 Oscars. One of which, I'm happy to say, is Best Director nominee Gus Van Sant, a Portland resident. This marks his second nomination in the category, the first for 1997's "Good Will Hunting." He does a good job of getting the story across, setting the mood of the film and the emotions that boil to the inevitable.
I don't usually comment on technical aspects of the movies I write about, but I will say that if any nominations should have been deserved for this film it would have been cinematography. The camera work: angles, grain, sweeping shots...it was the number one thing that jumped out at me while I watched this film. Alas, that was the one category with no mention. I'm just a lowly desk jockey, but I for one think that Mr. Harry Savides should be congratulated on a fantastic job. Take a look at his credits at the above link.
Sean Penn turns in another great performance if not a bit exaggerated. I have never seen footage of the real Harvey Milk and can't say if this is spot on or over the top, so I give the benefit of the doubt. You really go through a lot of emotions watching this character: pity, anger, incredulity, shock, sadness. Pick your order.
The supporting cast is a who's who of young and well known independent actors all led by Josh Brolin who throws in a (overall) small but vastly important character in Dan White. Each of the various actors: Emile Hirsch, James Franco, Diego Luna, Joseph Cross and Alison Pill provide wonderful color to the time and place of the film and are great pieces to complete the group that catapults the events of the age. Particularly Diego Luna, who's tragic character you really just want to slap the shit out of. Is this a family blog?
The film is framed fantastically by a narration from the character of Harvey Milk leaving an audio cassette which chronicles his life in the event of his assassination. An interesting point here is that the tape itself was, in fact, a real artifact discovered after Milk's death. This, I discovered after following up after my screening.
In the end, I did like the movie. It provides a snapshot of life for a group of individuals in a time that I would not have known without this film. Perhaps through design, perhaps by coincidence, it is highlighting the fight for family rights that the Gay and Lesbian community is now embroiled in by showing us that just 30 years earlier the fight for civil rights was alive and well and fought more vigorously.
We are giving MILK 3.5 1970's cassette recorders out of 5 1970's cassette recorders and would like to highlight that this is our second review of Oscar nominated films that in any other year might not have been nominated. Good though it may be, it is not great in our opinion. Unfortunately, any inspiration that this film may have hoped to give a new generation is immediately stricken when we reach the climax of the story and the sorrow that follows.
I'm just saying,
Elijah
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