Detroit Metro Times: Van Sant and Penn avoid sentimentality and rouse cross-cultural folk ("Milk")

[marmar]

Condensed Milk
Van Sant and Penn avoid sentimentality and rouse cross-cultural folk

Rated: R
Cast: Sean Penn, Emile Hirsch, Josh Brolin, Diego Luna, James Franco, Alison Pill
Genre: Biopic
Our Rating: B+

By Jeff Meyers

Gus Van Sant returns from the cinematic wilderness of low-budget experimental doodles like Elephant, Last Days and Paranoid Park to deliver his most conventional film in a decade, and one of his finer efforts. What's funny is its subject is a man who similarly bucked popular convention by embracing it: Harvey Milk.

An unabashed Hollywood-style biopic, Milk is a humble and stirring portrait of San Francisco gay activist Milk (Sean Penn), who, in 1978, became the first openly homosexual politician to be elected to public office in California. With a keen eye on the political setbacks and successes of Milk (rather than his personal melodramas), Van Sant contextualizes the struggle of gays when right-wing groups, led by Anita Bryant, sought to ensure their status as second-class citizens. The parallels to California's recently passed Proposition 8 are all too obvious and serve as a depressing reminder of how far we still have to go to become a tolerant and just society. It's baffling that the producers didn't push harder to open Milk before Election Day, elevating the public discourse on gay civil rights. More importantly, it could've been a terrific reminder to the current LGBT leadership of how effective Milk's dogged yet gentle tactics were at the time.

Focusing only on the last eight years of his life, Milk is surprisingly traditional with its narrative, laying out Milk's political awakening as he evolves from casual business owner to righteous citizen to the unofficial Mayor of Castro Street. While we may not learn a whole lot about what made him tick, Dustin Lance Black's script does a good job of charting Milk's growing political savvy, taking the audience on an insider's view of how a successful political movement gets started. Less by drama and more by persistence, Milk is elected a board supervisor, where his position and charisma make him the perfect foil for the religious right's McCarthy-like assaults on the gay and lesbian community.

Van Sant brilliantly captures the time and place with meticulous art direction, well-matched archival footage, cringe-worthy fashions and short bursts of cinematic fancy. He keeps the movie brisk and engaging, taking what could have been an endless parade of period vignettes and turning them into a reflection of Milk's seemingly boundless sense of humanity. Not everything works: The later political confrontations feel a bit like dramatic re-creations and a subplot about Milk's needy and depressed Mexican lover becomes a drag on the film, lacking any insight or revealing character moments. Still, it's a historically and politically important film that smartly avoids sentimentality or nostalgia. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.metrotimes.com/film/review.asp?rid=24687

[xchrom]

1. recommend

[LeftHander]

2. yup...nt