A Review of Milk

Even though I really liked the trailer for Milk, I definitely had some reservations for the film. This was mostly due to Gus Van Sant being at the helm of the film. As of late, Van Sant has churned out nothing but pretentious, self-absorbed garbage like Last Days and Elephant. So, when he got Milk, I wasn't sure if he was going to be able to treat it like he treated projects like Good Will Hunting. I was just afraid I was going to have a boring, pretentious, manipulative gay-rights activism film on my hands. Well, luckily, that did not happen.

Milk is a really good film. It has a great story that pretty much anyone can identify with, no matter what your sexuality is. It has great acting, directing, scoring and editing. It has a good message. It is emotional, exciting and actually pretty funny at times. It basically has everything you could want from a good, solid flick. 

Just to get it out of the way, I figured that, given the subject matter, I would go ahead and state how I feel about the whole homosexuality issue. Since I go to a Baptist-funded university, most of the people I encounter on campus are strongly against homosexuality. For my own personal reasons, I am not against it. I believe that if people feel that way and nothing else feels right, then they should be able to live their lives happily. I know that it is not for me and that I have never experienced what they have but I can respect it. I have no right to judge them. So, if you're gay, you are cool with me.

Now that that is out of the way, let's focus on the movie at hand. One of the best things about Milk is its screenplay by Dustin Lance Black. Black's screenplay gives the film a solid structure, held together by a scene in which Milk made a tape recording in case he was assassinated (this is actually true and not a cheap device for forming a structure; I listened to some of the real recording earlier today). By making this recording, Milk is able to comment on his real story as the film displays it in front of the viewer. The scenes dealing with Milk running for office and actually being in the office were very entertaining due to their tight structure and the way that they were strung together. I never once found myself bored in this movie and I feel that the strong writing had something to do with that. I also really liked the way Milk's last day was written and structured. The bit with him watching the sunrise while on the phone with Scotty was really touching to me (it sounds cheesy but trust me, it works). Also, as I've been doing the research today, Black did a pretty great job of being historically accurate. There may be a few things that are off but, for what I've seen, this film is pretty true to history and the man that was Harvey Milk.

Gus Van Sant (who is openingly gay for those who are not aware) does a pretty great job at directing this movie. I loved the way he had real news footage spliced in with the footage that he shot. It made the film feel more immediate and real (yes, I know it all happened but you know what I mean). A lot of the scenes looked really good stylistically but there were some others that had a lot of grain to them (most likely due to a low budget). However, I liked seeing the grain here and there. As with the news footage, it added more of a sense of realism. Van Sant definitely went with a more mainstream approach to his direction here as opposed to his direction in some of his more recent films. Gone are long shots and scenes with little-to-no dialogue. The shots here have a quicker pace to them (though not too quick) and still manage to have an artistic edge. For some reason, I really like the way he framed the scene with Milk and White talking in the church after White's son's christening. He left a lot of space at the top of the screen where as most directors would have shot the scene in close-up. It seemed to suggest that, although the two men where standing right next to each other, there was still a lot of distance between them, at least in their philosophies and ideologies. Overall, Van Sant does a great job.

Everyone turns in great performances in this movie. Sean Penn really does a great job as Harvey Milk. I didn't realize this fully until I saw that little bit of the real Milk at the end of the film and after watching some videos of him today. He really is able to capture his mannerisms quite well. He definitely feels like a fully defined character by the end of the movie (and I definitely didn't find him perfect by any means, which is something that makes him more human). He also has some nice, surprisingly moments of humor here and there. I really enjoyed them. Some of you may ask: is he better than Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler? The answer is no. Rourke does something that doesn't happen very often in film. Still, that doesn't mean Penn does a bad job. Penn comes off as a real pretentious guy in real life but he's a pretty great actor at times (he does tend to over act from time to time in other films). His acting definitely shines in this movie. It's a great performance. However, the person that really stood out to me in this movie was Emile Hirsch as Cleve Jones. Man, this guy was great. Hirsch is so good that you can barely recognize it's him at times. He adds a lot of the film's humorous moments as well as some inspiring ones. He really gives some a great performance and I felt like he was the audience's favorite throughout the film. I've liked all the performances that Josh Brolin has turned in as of late and this one is no exception. Brolin is great as Dan White, the city supervisor that suffers a fall from grace. Brolin really makes you feel for White at times, despite what he ends up becoming. You get the feeling that he just kind of gets caught in a downward spiral and just ends up making terrible decisions while in it. Surprisingly, he is in the funniest scene in the movie where he shows up late to Milk's birthday party drunk. His rant about people saying "you didn't have to get me anything" was hilarious and somewhat disturbing in a strange way. I loved it. Alison Pill is also great in the small role of Anne Kronenberg. She brings a great energy to the film and I really enjoyed her performance. She was good enough that I made sure to look her up after seeing the movie to see who she was. 

Out of all the performances, I would have to say that James Franco's is the weakest. Now, don't get me wrong; he did not do bad. However, as with most serious roles that Franco takes on, I can never really take him seriously for some reason. I just always think, "Hey, that's the guy from Freaks and Geeks." I don't know why. I felt that he came off as a little stiff here and there. It may just be because everyone else was doing such a great job that I felt this way.

I've been a fan of Danny Elfman for some time (I own a few of his soundtracks) and his score for this movie definitely is a good one. It's not exactly what you would expect from Elfman (more piano driven) and definitely doesn't contain any of his usual fantasy-like qualities. It has a very mature sound and reminded me of the vast leap he made with his A Simple Plan score (which I definitely own). It really helped give the movie more of an emotional core, especially at the end.

One of my favorite moments from seeing this movie in the theater was the fact that the character of Scott was from Jackson, MS. This is my hometown and where I was watching the movie (well, technically I was watching the movie in Madison but that's basically Jackson). Every time someone said this city (I think it was around three times), the crowd clapped and cheered. It was pretty funny. It's rare that Jackson or Mississippi for that matter even gets mentioned in a movie these days. It was a nice change. 

There are a few things that I didn't like but they aren't too glaring. I will admit- I did have trouble getting into the film at first. It starts off with Milk's relationship with Scotty (Franco) and them moving to San Francisco and living as gay hippies. I'm not sure why but it was just kind of hard to get into. It didn't feel like the rest of the movie. Once Milk starting gearing towards politics, I started getting into it. As I mentioned earlier, Franco's performance wasn't perfect so maybe this had something to do with it. I also didn't really find the relationships Milk had very strong. This may have to do with me being straight but they just didn't feel deep at all. They all start with casual sex with obviously loose men (but, then again, it was the 1970's). The one Milk had with Jack Lira (Diego Luna) was almost maddening. The guy could barely speak English and it felt like it was all about the sex. I just didn't feel as if it were deep at all. So it was really hard for me to feel anything when the film decided to focus on this aspect of Milk's life. For the most part, all I really got out of these sections was how Milk drove these people away and hurt them by focusing so much on the gay rights movement and politics.

Despite these minor problems, Milk is a really great movie. It is touching, inspiring, emotional and shows just how much one can do in this life if they put all their energy into it. It also shows how prejudiced and awful we can all be to people we don't truly understand. It has great writing, directing and amazing performances from a solid cast. I don't care if you are gay or straight, this movie should have something for you. 

9/10