For the longest time, I really didn't want to see this movie because of Sean Penn's voice. Like most film buffs, I truly believe that Penn is one of the best actors of his generation but even great actors make bad movies and, in the case of Mr. Penn, it doesn't get much worse than I am Sam.
The voice that Penn adopted to play Harvey Milk is just a bit too close to the voice for Sam. I had seen the Epstein documentary The Times of Harvey Milk and so was familiar with his voice. Penn isn't completely off in his interpretation but because the stink of Sam still lingers in the air, it's hard not to make that association.
Despite my initial hesitation, J and I finally got around to watching it and we were not disappointed. Josh Brolin has been having one hell of a second act. Ever since he did No Country for Old Men, he's been in one high-profile gig after another. It may be Sean Penn's name on the marquee but Brolin's portrayal of Dan White was strong. James Franco also put it in a surprising performance. Definitely nothing to write home about, but considering that most of his roles have involved superheroes or potheads, it was nice to see him play a straight, dramatic role (no pun intended).
But the big award has to go to Gus Van Sant. In my re-view review (no, that's not a typo) of Bottle Rocket, I mentioned that VanSant was one of the three most important directors to emerge out of the 1980s (the other two being Steven Soderbergh and Spike Lee). While Lee and Soderbergh may have made the more noteworthy (or attention-grabbing) films since their respective debuts, VanSant has quietly been developing his craft. Most people know him for My Own Private Idaho, Goodwill Hunting, Drugstore Cowboy, and now Milk. But his most intriguing works have been, for lack of a better term, visual meditations like Elephant, Paranoid Park, and Last Days.
While not necessarily abstract, these films are held by a very loose narrative. Rather than having a structure that tries to get from point A to point B, VanSant's meditations slow the films down so that we can understand those spaces that exist between as well as make possible A and B. In Elephant, for example, we already know that a Columbine-like shooting is about to occur. There's no drama or inner psychology. These films are not meant to understand why someone did something. Instead, Elephant gives us nearly 90 minutes of seeming slow-motion movement only to be interrupted by the arrival of the shooters.
Milk is not anything like Elephant. Milk is a far more traditional narrative film; however, VanSant has seemingly learned from these meditative films and brought elements into Milk. Try to imagine Goodwill Hunting directed more in the vein of Drugstore Cowboy. When Dan White sets out to kill Milk as well as Mayor Moscone (and really, if I'm "giving the plot away" at this point, you really need to spend more time reading something other than stupid film blogs), the scenes are not accompanied by some throbbing cello to underscore the tension. You know Dan White is about to shoot Milk but just as he does, the camera cuts away to an office down the hall so that all you hear are soft muffled pops that could just as well be a book falling of a desk. All this isn't to say the scene doesn't contain intense drama but by pulling away from the action at just the right time, VanSant is able to bring us closer to what's happening. It's a difficult technique to pull off and most directors wouldn't even attempt it but would probably have chosen to do a much more conventional shooting involving lots of blood and loud noises.
I'm not sure if Milk is really deserving of best picture but, thus far, VanSant is definitely my pick for best director.
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