Reviews now on YouTube! | Watch here

Larsen On Film

  • Review Library
  • Subscribe
  • Why I’m Wrong
  • About
  • Books

Milk

What if Gus Van Sant had made Milk as if he were actually Gus Van Sant? That’s all I could think while watching this stately, well-mannered movie biography of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to hold a major political office when he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. Aside from fairly intense canoodling between Milk (Sean Penn) and his lover Scott Smith (James Franco), this traditional, conservative effort could have come from director Ron Howard in A Beautiful Mind mode. True, Van Sant has delivered respectable studio product before, namely Good Will Hunting. But he’s at his best as a writer and director when working with a non-professional cast to conjure up ethereal mood pieces such as Elephant, Last Days or Paranoid Park. The latter movie – a meditative, skateboarding whodunit – also came out in 2008, but tellingly received little of the Oscar attention showered upon this prestige project.

Recent Reviews

Superman (2025)

Action/Adventure Rated PG-13

“What’s a nice guy like Superman doing in a mean place like this?”

Only Yesterday (1991)

Drama Rated PG

“… gently, but profoundly, explores questions of memory, identity, and purpose.”

Throne of Blood (1957)

Drama Rated NR

“… a tale of fog and blood.”


Search Review Library

Sponsored by the following | become a sponsor



SUBSCRIBE


Sign up to receive emails

Sign up to get new reviews and updates delivered to your inbox!

Please wait...

Thank you for signing up!




FOLLOW ONLINE



All rights reserved. All Content ©2024 J. Larsen
maintained by Big Ocean Studios

TOP