Milk Review

I seem to be in a Josh Brolin rut, because the last two films I've seen in the theater featured him prominently. In Milk, Brolin plays the pathetic figure that is Dan White. Only Sean Penn's performance as Harvey Milk surpasses Brolin's. The film takes an unappolegtic approach to documenting Harvey Milk's arrival on the San Francisco political scene. The film also does a great job at re-creating the atmosphere of the City in the mid-to-late 70's. But there are a couple of elements that detracted from the story.

First, the film starts out with the announcements of the assasinations. This really seems unnecessary considering that most of the audience already knows what happened. Starting the film this way doesn't set the stage, it doesn't add to a sense of forboding, it doesn't even help to advance the narrative. All it does it start things off on the wrong note.

Second, the Milk narrative seems to exist purely as a shortcut to telling the story. I'm never sure in the end if Milk actually recorded his story or if this was just a device used to fill in the gaps.

But those two things aside, Milk is good. Seeing it at the Castro theater fill with an enthusiastic audience definitely enhanced the experience, but I think it is entertaining and engaging and worthy of the praise it has received.