| Overall Grade: |
A- |
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| Story: |
A- |
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| Acting: |
A+ |
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| Direction: |
B+ |
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| Visuals: |
B+ |
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Moving, powerful and immensely relevant!
by Angry Parent (movies profile)
Dec 8, 2008
7
of
8 people found this review helpful
MILK is one of those unique films where you leave the theater with the feeling that you saw something important, learned something essential and experienced a slice of an amazing person's life.
Sean Penn is nothing short of PHENOMENAL in the title role, disappearing into the persona of Harvey Milk. Within minutes of the start of the film, I completely forgot I was watching Sean Penn. He's that good. He imbues Milk with energy, humor, compassion and all-too-human flaws. This role is a bit of a departure for Penn who doesn't usually play positive, energetic and effusive characters like this one. But once again, he proves that he is one of the finest actors working today. There may be riots in the streets if he doesn't get the Oscar for this performance!
The rest of the cast is uncanny in their resemblances to their real-life counterparts, especially Emile Hersh as Cleve Jones. Each of the cast members performs admirably, especially James Franco and Josh Brolin. There's not a lot of "meat" to the roles for the supporting cast as Milk himself is clearly the focus of the story but each member of the cast was pitch perfect in their performances.
The direction was quite good with nice cuts to actual footage of the marches and news footage from the actual events of Milk's life. The parallels to Prop. 8 and the current state of the gay rights movement is uncanny.
My only complaint about this film is the timing of its release. This is a story that the gay community and those who still struggle to recognize the burning need for equality in our society needed before Prop. 8. |
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