Milk
Dir: Gus Van Sant
2008
****
I think the most important question to ask regarding Gus Van Sant's Milk, and all biopics forthat matter, is 'Did this film respect and stay true to the life and memory of the person/persons in question?'. I would argue that in this instance it did. So with that in mind and thanks to the great direction and solid performances, Milk deserves it's praise. I wasn't much of a Gus Van Sant fan before watching this, I shied away from his films as the few I've seen I didn't like, found convoluted, with a forced 'cool' agenda which I found has never really worked, but after this I will now give him more of a chance and will watch some more of his. Penn is an amazing actor, this isn't his greatest performance though and I would have liked to have seen Micky Rourke win the Oscar for best actor in 2008 but I would suggest his was only better by a small margin. Historically important film making and highly recommended.