Milk (#3)

MILK- Directed with a delicate and poetic touch by Gus Van Sant, with strong performances from a deeply talented cast, and anchored by perhaps the best performance of Sean Penn’s career, this may very well be the best movie of the year.  Milk is altogether an incendiary call to stand against injustice, inspiring biopic, history lesson, and inspirational call for hope and meaningful change through political action. Van Sant deftly cuts between documentary footage and photographic images from the media, which gives the story a powerful context that calls to mind not only the complexity of what Milk accomplished , but also how similar the contemporary political debate around gay marriage is. The only misstep, to nit pick a fine movie, was the wheelchair bound gay adolescent who calls Milk out of the blue, seemingly too coincidently, at his, not one, but two lowest moments in the movie. The character clearly is intended to inspire hope to our hero, reminding him why he is making the personal sacrifices he is, so he can inspire others. MILK is too good for such an on the nose moment, that I found distracting and not needed.

As an aside, I ask, is there a better actor working today then Sean Penn?  I’m eagerly awaiting the Spicoli as an adult movie that the world demands.