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.

I’ve Loved You So Long takes someone guilty of an inhuman act and gets us to recognize their universal humanity. Juliette (Kristin Scott Thomas) has recently been released from prison after 15 years (I’ll let the movie reveal her crime in its own, judicious time). Though they haven’t communicated in most of that time, she

“…exists on a more realistic plane than something like Lethal Weapon or Rush Hour. Watching it, you feel like you’re walking a cop’s beat.

“For a drama about a missing child, Changeling is curiously devoid of any sense of urgency.

“When I say Charlie Kaufman should be put on suicide watch, I’m not being facetious.

“…wants to sweep previous sweeping historical romances off their feet.

“As a companion piece to a Bible study group this may have some merit, but it doesn’t belong in a theater.

“I found Poppy to be annoying, bordering on the delusional, but of course I’m a big old crab.