| Overall Grade: |
A+ |
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| Story: |
A+ |
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| Acting: |
A+ |
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| Direction: |
A+ |
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| Visuals: |
A+ |
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Best movie I have seen in a long time
by Bruce (movies profile)
Nov 25, 2008
21
of
31 people found this review helpful
I liked "Milk" a lot, but it's only fair to reveal my biases. I'm a liberal gay guy and this movie is very much in sync with my political and personal opinions. If you think that gays are going to hell, that Anita Bryant is terrific, and that Sean Penn should keep his nose out of politics, you probably won't like this movie. (But I can't imagine that you would have bought a ticket in the first place.)
But assuming you are okay with the gays and the liberals, let's move on to the ACTUAL MOVIE:
I thought it was a really engaging story. There was lots of "hmmmm…what's going to happen next?" suspense about Harvey Milk's relationships, his political career and of course his life. I knew how it was going to end--it's history plus the movie reveals the ultimate ending early on. That actually made it more suspenseful for me: I knew what's going to happen, but I didn't know exactly how and when.
It's also interesting and somewhat neglected history. There's lots of archival footage that fits in smoothly. Anita Bryant is a medium-sized character and it's all clips of the real Anita. And if you've never heard of Harvey Milk or don't know much about him, I'll bet that would make this even more interesting.
Sean Penn's portrayal of the main character totally sucked me in. His Harvey Milk is imperfect, funny, charismatic, awkward, kind of nerdy, and very human. Caring so much about the main character made everything—the political struggles, the love affairs, and of course the ending—much more meaningful to me. I hope he wins an Oscar for this. I can't imagine a better performance coming along. A lot of the other actors were good too. Once again, I was not impressed with Emile Hirsch--and he's not even attractive in this movie.
If you don't care about equality and gay rights, maybe you won't have a lump in your throat during the whole movie or the occasional tear. Maybe you won't feel sort of sad the whole next few days like I did. But maybe you will. "Milk" a great piece of filmmaking, some excellent acting, and a good education. Thanks to Gus Van Sant and that cute kid who wrote it for bringing this important story to the screen. |
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