Omaha and I went to see Milk (IMDB), the biopic about Harvey Milk. I just want to know why Omaha keeps taking me to films that make me cry.
Harvey Milk was one of the first openly gay people to run for any office, anywhere, in the United States. The film follows Harvey on his at first quixotic attempt to turn the Castro district of San Francisco into a gay mecca, and then to take a seat on the San Francisco board of supervisors. ( Spoilers if you don't know your history )
Sean Penn plays Harvey Milk, and for this rather infamously bad-boy actor, who was once married to Madonna, to put everything aside and mince and kiss guys and play an openly gay man, and he pulls it off so brilliantly and without pause that, yeah, Sean freakin' Penn is probably up for an Oscar this year.
There are great performances all through the film, from Emile Hirsch and James Franco and Josh Brolin. The weakest is from Diego Luna, who plays Harvey's second lover in the film, but it's an easy role-- play a clingy, neurotic drunk-- so it doesn't really get the attention it deserves.
But it's really Penn who deserves all the attention. His Harvey Milk is outrageously, happily gay at a time when being so was dangerous, and he strolls through this film so utterly in tune with the character that you believe his barely-there lisp and sweetly unironic flamboyance.
This film has only been playing in one theater here in Seattle, and the theater's been showing Milk for six weeks, and it was packed. I can't help but wonder why it has such limited distribution when it seems to be doing so well.
The film is rated "R". There are three scenes that suggest that, but let me say this: if the second one had been a man and a woman, it probably would have been P-13.
Really, go see Milk. It's a great movie.
Harvey Milk was one of the first openly gay people to run for any office, anywhere, in the United States. The film follows Harvey on his at first quixotic attempt to turn the Castro district of San Francisco into a gay mecca, and then to take a seat on the San Francisco board of supervisors. ( Spoilers if you don't know your history )
Sean Penn plays Harvey Milk, and for this rather infamously bad-boy actor, who was once married to Madonna, to put everything aside and mince and kiss guys and play an openly gay man, and he pulls it off so brilliantly and without pause that, yeah, Sean freakin' Penn is probably up for an Oscar this year.
There are great performances all through the film, from Emile Hirsch and James Franco and Josh Brolin. The weakest is from Diego Luna, who plays Harvey's second lover in the film, but it's an easy role-- play a clingy, neurotic drunk-- so it doesn't really get the attention it deserves.
But it's really Penn who deserves all the attention. His Harvey Milk is outrageously, happily gay at a time when being so was dangerous, and he strolls through this film so utterly in tune with the character that you believe his barely-there lisp and sweetly unironic flamboyance.
This film has only been playing in one theater here in Seattle, and the theater's been showing Milk for six weeks, and it was packed. I can't help but wonder why it has such limited distribution when it seems to be doing so well.
The film is rated "R". There are three scenes that suggest that, but let me say this: if the second one had been a man and a woman, it probably would have been P-13.
Really, go see Milk. It's a great movie.
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