Movie – Milk

This movie was on a list of 3 to see as soon as I had moved into the city and closer to the cinema.

I think with Sean Penn you cannot go wrong and as I have missed a lot of his movies that don’t get a general release in the UK, I’m looking forward to catching all of them from now on. 10 minutes from 3-4 movie theatres will sure help.

The theatre was packed on a snowy Friday night before Christmas so I was lucky to get a seat just as the film was starting. It was well worth the wait. The film was fantastic, one of the best I’ve seen in a while and I cannot think of one negative thing to say about the experience.

The true story was impressively told. The sad bits were affectionately toned down with jokes at which everyone in the theatre laughed and the acting was sublime by everyone including a very serious, and smouldering, performance by James Franco. Extraordinary considering they were all straight (that we know off) actors playing explicit gay men. Sean Penn evidently cannot do anything wrong and must now be regarded up there with the Pacinos and De Niros. He’s definitely off that ilk and we know that he totally gets involved with the movie projects – he doesn’t just turn up and act.

A big part of it was Harvey Milk, America’s first openly gay man elected to public office, leading the opposition to stop a law going through banning gay teachers. Unbelievable prejudice!

The film did what it should have. It educated and entertained and the audience had huge empathy with not one but all the characters and I’m confident this film (evidently) will be enjoyed by the mainstream, not just gays.

The directing was perfect. It was unusual without being in the least bit irritating (as in Cloverfield) with lots of different types of unexpected shots to keep you on the edge of the seat. There was also real footage interspersed without distracting from the story. An impressively executed idea. At the end of the movie, where they often show what all the true life characters went on to do, they showed the actor and then the real life person – a really touching way to bring them into the film.

Funny and motivating; the perfect antidote to the usual cheesy holiday films and with much more warmth and inspiration.

It was so good, it didn’t matter that I hadn’t time to buy any movie snacks beforehand.

It’s good to be in the US as I will now catch movies like this that won’t always make the UK – even though this one has had huge critical acclaim here. Oscar worthy for sure.

It was the most powerful movie highlighting gay rights that I have seen since Philadelphia. That was wonderful but too sad to ever see again. This I will watch over and over (to name drop a Madonna song – a real shame that marriage didn’t work out; he would have been a fantastic influence for her).

A must see.

9.5/10

Smile factor 9/10 (obviously it had a little sadness)