Not Found

MetaCritic Score: 84

Most of you don’t know me personally, but here’s a little secret: I’m not a morning person. The entire time I’ve been in college, I’ve made it a rule to not have any classes before 11 a.m. My plan worked wonderfully for my first three-and-a-half years in school, but this semester it’s finally caught up with me. The one class I need to finish my sociology major is only offered at 8 a.m. Needless to say, it hasn’t been an easy adjustment, seeing as how I’m almost always awake until 3 or 4 a.m. Normally a lack of sleep just leads to afternoon naps, but unfortunately this time it affected my ability to adequately review this film. I don’t think I really missed anything, but I was fighting heavy eyelids for almost the entire second half of the movie.

Anyhow, let’s get on with my impressions of the film. First of all, Milk represents another directorial home run for one of our generation’s best, Gus Van Sant. The pacing is excellent, and Van Sant does a wonderful job blending stock footage with the rest of the film.

Though the subject matter alone makes his role Oscar bait, Penn lives up to the hype and delivers a characteristically stellar performance as the man himself, Harvey Milk. Though I wasn’t particularly impressed by James Franco, Josh Brolin and Emile Hirsch picked up the slack with brilliant showings.

All that being said, I don’t think I enjoyed the movie quite as much as I expected. Perhaps it’s just because the movie has been so hyped, but I was really expecting to be blown away. Milk is really well written and directed, but the entertainment factor just wasn’t as high as I had hoped.

Still, if you have an opportunity, Milk is definitely worth seeing. If you’re in Charleston, you better hurry; this is the last week Milk will be showing at the Terrace.

No related posts.