Milk

I've had a problem with director Gus Van Sant ever since he did that "look at me, I'm so clever and great" abomination of a remake PSYCHO so I will confess to having issues with this biopic though oddly enough not the one much of mainstream America did. The fact the gay community are fighting pretty much the same battle thirty years later underscores the need for Harvey Milk's story to be told yet again. There is no need for me to discuss the politics involved here, many more qualified to do so have and are doing this. What about Sean Penn? Did he deserve the Oscar for his work here. A lot of people, a majority of the mainstream I mentioned, feel he won only because of the "gay" card which I feel is unfair. Penn does some of his best acting work here, maybe not Oscar worthy but damned if his acceptance speech wasn't great. Enough about Penn, though I should mention Diego Luna who was fabulous, let's get back to Van Sant. He delivers a supremely solid film here on all accounts and I was most impressed by being unable to tell if I was watching archival or recently shot footage making MILK one of the best modern period pieces I've ever seen. I still can't forgive him for PSYCHO but I will admit he is one mightyl damn fine film maker and I'm less worried about his doing THE ELECTRIC KOOL-AID ACID TEST after seeing MILK than I was before.