Review of MILK

February 4, 2009

This is the 4th Best Picture nominee I have seen. Honestly, I do not think I would even watch it if it were not nominated. I do not really like Sean Penn. Even his Oscar-winning role in "Mystic River" did not really work for me as I found it to be overacting.

Sean Penn already won the SAG Best Actor award for this performance and he is the front runner in the Oscar race. I do not know the real Harvey Milk, so this is just Sean Penn acting gay for me. He was good in giving powerful political speeches, but nothing really spectacular. I do not get the love, sorry.

The nominated role of Josh Brolin as Milk's political nemesis Dan White lacks something in the way the role was written and executed. His motivations are not clearly rationalized. And his acting was quite leaden, especially in the "drunk" scene.

As for the ensemble acting, OK, I would agree that they were good in portraying homosexuals. However, Diego Luna is too over the top as the unstable Latino toyboy Jack. Emile Hirsch's character Cleve came out of nowhere, I do not know why he was there. High School Musical's Lucas Grabeel surprisingly appears here in a very un-Disney role, but very minor though. 

However, the revelation here is James Franco. He is actually very good as the loyal boyfriend Scott. He was daring yet sensitive, showing a different dimension in his acting range (especially for those who only know him as Harry Osborne). He should have been nominated for Supporting Actor instead of Brolin, in my opinion.

"Milk" has a good documentary feel to it, and that is thanks to the directorial talent of Guy Van Sant. I like the mix of historical clips and the recreated scenes. I guess it is just that the subject matter that I do not really care for, so the whole movie did not matter to me.