Monday, January 05, 2009

Milk

Blobby claims Milk 'Best Movie of the Year'.

Yes, yes, it is so far Blobby's only movie of the year, as he saw it just four days into 2009. But he's fairly certain it would rank up there even if it were later in the year.

We went to go see the movie yesterday. It is still not playing at any megaplexes, and maybe that is not the plan. 20 minutes prior to the film, we were two of maybe 10 folks. A few minutes before the start the place was pretty packed.

But it was the demographics that threw me. It is quite possible we were the only gay men in the theater. I don't think there were a dozen men in the place, and all of them (save us) were with women. Real ones.

The two biddies (is that the right spelling?) behind us drove me nuts - though Denton never noticed them. Each and every time that Dan White was in a scene, one would go "oh no!". I'm like, lady, it is 26 minutes into the movie, he isn't shooting him in the first half-hour! Let's say Dan White was in 20 scenes. She said "oh no", each and every time.

As for the movie, Gus Van Sant does a great job of bringing a feel, the look, the energy and desperation of the times. Sean Penn does a remarkable job as Harvey, and when you see him in comparison to Brad Pitt's underwhelming performance in Benjamin Button, you wonder how Penn won't walk away with another Oscar. The supporting cast is pretty good too. James Franco can do more than Spiderman, apparently. I barely recognized Victor Garber as George Moscone.

I'm not ashamed to say that Milk made me tear-up more than a few times. More than Brokeback did.

Clearly, one can all too easily draw comparisons to Proposition 6 in 1978 to Prop 8 three decades later. It clearly depicts how far we've come and how far we haven't in that same time. I sat there and wondered if this movie had been released in September, if that would have helped sway 5% more voters in California come election day.

But you can't change the past. What you do is take lessons from these times, and movies that depict them, learn from them and make progress. Hopefully.

I highly recommend Milk. Go see it. Joe-Blob says check it out.



Song by: Garbage

1 comment:

A Lewis said...

You know, we saw it in Albany last weekend. And I was also surprised at the demographics of the audience. Like you, the place was filled with older folks, many man-woman couples. I was suprised. And I loved it.