We Can't Wait #4 Milk

Directed by Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting, Gerry, Elephant, Psycho, My Own Private Idaho, etcetera)
Starring Sean Penn as Harvey Milk, James Franco, Josh Brolin, Diego Luna, Emile Hirsch and many more
Photos on this page from Towleroad which has been doing a smashing job documenting this film
Synopsis a biopic on the life and times of slain gay activist Harvey Milk, the Mayor of Castro Street. If you're young you're forgiven for not knowing much about him but by all means rent the Oscar winning documentary The Times of Harvey Milk. You won't forget it.
Brought to you by Focus Features (who still haven't won the Best Picture Oscar for all they've done for the cinema. Argh!)
Expected Release Date November 2008

Nathaniel: Hollywood has made roughly 278 biopics in the past 8 years and I'm done. I'm so tired of them. And then... lo and behold, someone (in this case Gus Van Sant) decides to make one about someone ( in this case Harvey Milk) who actually deserves one and whose life matters in ways that aren't already dusty with history --no offense to anyone but do the Elizabeth movies really tell us anything we need to know about our lives now? And what more is there to be learned from tales of famous musicians who are also drug addicts?

So I cautiously await the most high profile gay film since Brokeback Mountain. Are you feeling the same or have you thrown caution to the wind and find yourself expecting a miracle movie?

Gabriel: The studio clearly has Brokeback: The Next Generation as its model, doesn't it? Leaking photos to gay blogs, inviting Perez Hilton to the set...the "community" is definitely being courted. It's too early to know, of course, whether the film will be great -- or whether it will have a watershed critical moment, like Brokeback Mountain had at the Venice Film Festival when its awards momentum really took off.

But for anyone who knows the Harvey Milk story (or who sees the excellent documentary, The Times Of Harvey Milk), you know that there's an epic tale to be told here, replete with cinema-friendly metaphors, heroics, tragedies, and spirit. I'm excited about Milk for its overflowing potential more than anything. It could, realistically, be a classic for the ages. I'm not sure I can say that about the new Harry Potter flick.

<-- Josh Brolin as Dan White, Milk's killer

Glenn: Unlike the others, I am anticipating the arthouse skater boys of Gus Van Sant's Paranoid Park more, with Milk place just behind it (literally, one place after it). I have affection of Van Sant's more mainstream fare (I even like Psycho), and Milk seems like it's going to play itself right down the middle. A potentially Oscar-buzzing biopic of an important political and social figure, but playing right into the queer sensibilities that Van Sant is obviously fond of exploring but usually with more intimate filmmaking.

The initial images to leak from the set are comforting, unabashed homosexuality (and between Sean Penn and James Franco no less. yum) is always great to see from a film of this matter and it will be interesting to see how tradition audiences take yet again to the "queering up" of a very old-fashioned genre. A Beautiful Mind this ain't (or at least it doesn't appear to be at this stage), which is about as good a thing as I possibly hope.

Sean Penn and James Franco as lovers

Gabriel:

I agree that James Franco making out with a boy is super yummy. Even if it has to be Sean Penn. But can't Taye Diggs have a cameo or something?

Joe: I don't think it's a stretch to say that this film will be getting the most coverage, scrutiny, expectation, and enthusiasm around the blogs I frequent. As it should be -- when gay subject matter goes mainstream, it's a big deal as to how it's received. Just as Ang Lee ended up being the perfect director for Brokeback, I think Van Sant fits perfectly with the more political Milk story. It's the politics of it that makes me think Milk will end up being a tougher sell than Brokeback as far as the general population is concerned (on that level, I suppose Sean Penn doesn't help much either), but I have reason to hope that Van Sant has it in him to dazzle with the artistry and then bring the politics home in a way that can't be denied. So, yeah, my hopes are already super inflated.

Emile Hirsch with 70s fro --->

MaryAnn: Ah, the queer agenda: human rights, freedom, happiness. You commies, you. Why do you hate America? :->

Seriously, any movie that rattles the mainstream like Brokeback Mountain did is catnip to me, and this director and this cast have some major potential to do just that. I'm all over the place with Van Sant -- I hated Elephant but loved Gerry, loved Good Will Hunting but hated Finding Forrester -- but I think he's probably one of the few directors who can find a middle ground between appealing to the mainstream while rocking their world at the same time. We'll see.

Nathaniel: Yes we will. And on opening night no less (if not sooner)

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the countdown
#1 Synecdoche, New York / #2 Burn After Reading / #3 Australia / #4 Milk / #5 Blindness / # 6 Doubt / #7 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button / #8 Revolutionary Road / #9 The Dark Knight / #10 Sex & The City: The Movie / #11 The Lovely Bones / #12 Wall-E / #13 Stop-Loss / #14 The Women / #15 Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince / Introduction / Orphans
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