Milk

Eric's Review: 82

Director: Gus Van Sant
Run Time: 128 min
Rating: R

Overall Enjoyment: 8

"Milk" is shot moreso as a documentary than a dramatic piece of work. Having said that, there were a lot of aesthetic choices in editing and certainly acting that make this a fantastic film that was worth of the Oscar nomination. However, I found it to be particularly interesting how the characters - and even Harvey Milk himself - seemed to accurately mimic stereotypes associated with the gay community ranging from physical gestures, speech, and consistent remarks on how "cute" some guy is. I understand that the film is attempting to accurately portray each character as true to actual statements and moods as possible, I just find it to be interesting how several of the characters play directly to stereotypes. Nevertheless, "Milk" is a film with great pacing and has a sense of humor that makes it an enjoyable film with a positive message albeit a little biased although one cannot look for objectivity in a film titled "Milk" a bio pic in every sense.


Acting: 10

Sean Penn certainly gives an outstanding performance in bringing the character of Harvey Milk to life in a way that the audience can identify with and root for. The supporting cast does an equally fantastic job of portraying believable and well crafted characters. There were only a few instances where acting took me out of the experience (mostly from James Franco) which easily makes this the best cast collaboration I have seen from 2008 thus far. Alas, I do not think that Penn's performance outweighs that of Mickey Rourke in "The Wrestler." I was waiting for Sean Penn to take his role to the next level and I felt that Rourke's performance of an aged wrestler was more genuine and should have yielded the Oscar.

Cinematography: 7

The cinematography in "Milk" was relatively flat with a few incredibly interesting shots. However, this interesting shot were so few in between that they felt a little disjointed when you did see something well crafted. I noticed an interesting motif of reflection through the film's cinematography. Most often it was used within a window where we see the character's reflection in the window while his internal thoughts are expressed through the action taking place on the opposite side.

Writing: 9

As far as I have seen thus far, the film's Oscar for original screenplay is on mark. The dialogue of the characters is well written and the political discourse was inspiring and moving. A well written and well performed film.


Plot: 8

One cannot do too much when the plot is already written via history. However, I thought a sense of suspense was built through the plot and progressed well to maintain interest. Shifting through various elections throughout Milk's career was divided in a manner that seemed appropriate. The film did not linger too long in any particular event in his career and seemed concise when something was highlighted.


Soundtrack: 7

To be honest I do not remember the soundtrack very well. This could mean one of two things: either I was so engaged in the story and the soundtrack supplemented the film well or there was little to no music in the film. For some reason I cannot remember if I enjoyed the music or not.


Special Effects: 7

"Milk" suffers from not needing in produce any special effects. However, there was a stylistic choice to make the film appear to be grainy at times and much more clear in other sections. The problem here is that I did not understand what the filmmakers were going for in their choices. Obviously, the grainy nature of a scene has an aged quality and looks like old stock footage. I just do not know why it was used at certain times and not others.

Editing: 9

I felt that the editing between actual stock footage and newly shot material for the film was seamless and brought some authenticity to the film. I also felt that the editing of the film to produce a documentary-like mood did well for the story and added to the emotional impact of the message presented to the audience. Once again, excellent pacing.

Sound Design: 8

This is hard for me to judge since the copy of the film I saw had some problems with the sound track. From what I could tell, the sound of the film was well put together and did its job of sounding like anything from a rally to intimate dialogue.

Climax: 9

I thought the ending of the film was appropriate and to be expected. For whatever reason it seemed to remind of the ending of "Road to Perdition" which I cannot really detail without spoiling anything. Regardless, there is an almost surreal tension produced at the end that left me feeling suspended in a way that only a well developed film can. Outstanding.

Film - 82