Milk

For me, Milk was easily the best film of last year's Academy Awards run. Slumdog was an overrated Indian version of a Charles Dickens story, and Frost/Nixon and The Reader were inexplicably nominated, in my opinion. Only Benjamin Button and Milk touched me out of the top five, but Button didn't touch me as much as Milk did. Sean Penn smiles! That alone should have gotten him the Oscar nomination. And while he did win, and I have no problem with his win, a part of me did want to see Mickey Rourke take it home. But that is getting away from the main point. Penn delivers not an impression, which would have been too easy for an actor his depth and talents, but an immersion into Harvey Milk. Emerging close enough to the real person to make us believe that he is him, but creating enough of a character to make us understand why he was so beloved. The rest of the cast follows his lead, and every person involved looks like their real-life counterpart and captures enough of their charm, intelligence, bravery, etc. and uses that to form their own character. How did this lose the Best Ensemble SAG?

But a cast is only as good as the direction and writing of the film. And a good director can make them rise above even a below average script. Luckily, Gus Van Sant is a fantastic director. Gus Van Sant proves himself, once more, to be a modern day master. An auteur, if you will. He is a virtuoso. Yes, for a few years his wunderkind indie-kid cred was dented by a string of mainstream lackluster fair, but after going back to his roots he has come out swinging and delivers one of his greatest films. The integration of real-life footage (Anita Bryant's vitriol speaks for itself) and the filmed footage is seamless.

And, luckily, they also have a wonderful screenplay to work with. Human Rights are still an issue. It will be a timeless issue. Harvey Milk is but one of the numerous players in the movement of change and hope. Obama consciously, or unconsciously, evokes much of this film's message. Audacity of hope, indeed. The emotional uplift at the end, a combination of tears and a yearning for a better tomorrow, could have been given to these actors and this director from a great screenplay. It's a shame that everyone drank the Slumdog kool-aid.