Milk
Directed by Gus Van Sant

It's to Milk's advantage that it has a gay director. Unlike previous homophilic Oscar-hopeful Brokeback Mountain, the movie doesn't shroud its subject in mystery. Instead, Gus Van Sant tells the story of Harvey Milk's Gay Rights campaign from the already liberated perspective that the rest of the world better get used to it. In his most conventional film since Finding Forrester, Van Sant zeroes in exclusively on the moments of Harvey Milk's life where he was newsworthy. This turns out to be Milk's strength and weakness. Van Sant's acceptance of Harvey means he never feels false obligation to explain him - a lesser movie would have childhood flashbacks along the lines of Harvey Milk playing with dolls. This one is humane enough to know that's a non-issue. But it's infinitely more exciting as a lesson in the 1970s movement in San Francisco's Castro district than it is of Harvey Milk's character. Sean Penn's externally sunny performance covers wounds the movie only hints at - that reliance on suggestion was also a key to the director's Elephant. And in the particularly gripping last half, where Harvey goes head-to-head, with conservative campaigner Dan White (Josh Brolin), the movie's hits its rise-of-the-oppressed sympathies with political force. As a true story, it makes great drama - preferable if you don't already know the history.

Copyright, Mark Palermo