Stars:
***
Rating: R for language,
sexuality and mature themes
Run
Time: 2
hours, 7 minutes
Performances
are king in this poignant homage to late great San Francisco Supervisor Harvey
Milk.
Sean Penn
has a field day portraying the first openly gay man elected to office in the
U.S. As a 40-year old Brooklyn insurance salesman with nothing to show for himself
Harvey decides on a fresh start and heads west to check out San Francisco’s
burgeoning gay scene.
Along for
the ride is newly minted lover Scott Smith (Palo Alto native James Franco) who
will be Harvey’s rock in both good times and bad.
Harvey and
Scott open a fledgling photo shop in the Castro district (ostensibly so Harvey
can sit in the window and watch the cute boys walk by), much to the dismay of
the local business owners who don’t want “their kind” tarnishing their solid
working-class neighborhood.
Castro
Camera is a gradual success, evolving into an activist hangout as Harvey and
friends sense an increasing need to formally organize for gay rights. From his
status as the unofficial “Mayor of Castro Street” Harvey moves on to politics
of a more formal sort, running for San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors not as
a candidate but as part of a bigger movement. Courtesy of director Gus Van
Sant’s skillful technique a revolution unfolds.
After
several misfires Harvey is elected Supervisor and makes a name for himself in
the City by the Bay, chumming around with liberal mayor George Moscone (Victor
Garber) and trying to making nice with conservative District Supervisor Dan
White (Josh Brolin).
The rest is
history – a painful chapter in American politics. For those of a certain age
it’s tough to erase the memories of those dismal days; for the rest far be it
from me to play spoiler.
Not
surprisingly Penn is a marvelous Milk; inheriting the brash, engaging spirit of
a classic nurturer who broke down barriers with his campy wit and warmth.
Franco is excellent as the unruffled lover who tires of taking a backseat and
Diego Luna weirdly tempestuous as an emotionally loose cannon who takes over
where Scott leaves off. Brolin – hello phenomenal year! – pulls out a rock-solid
White whose clean-cut appeal masks mountains of turmoil.
Visuals are
lush and loaded with kodachrome nostalgia and vintage 70s footage that thrills
when the concept gets repetitive. The Danny Elfman score is a soothing salve
for open wounds. Van Sant sidesteps his fringe beat to craft a more refined affair
with hope as its central and wholly contemporary theme. A slice of history well
worth revisiting.