REVIEW Our favorite film of 2008, Gus Van Sant’s best effort to date and containing what is possibly Sean Penn’s best performance ever, Milk is entertaining, illuminating and riveting from the first frame to the last. I am 52 years old and know the story of Harvey Milk quite well. I remember Dianne Fienstein’s choked-up announcement of his assassination. I remember the dark night after the trial. None of this meant anything as I sat in the dark theater and watched Dan White (Josh Brolin) crawl in through the basement window and my heartbeat raced. I wept several times, laughed frequently and joined in the cheers as the film ended. Gus Van Sant’s has created cinematic magic with Milk.

The story begins with Harvey Milk in 1972 (Sean Penn) as a closeted insurance salesman picking up a trick in the NYC subway. That trick was Scott Smith (James Franco), a hippie boy instantly charmed by the Jewish closet-case, who urged him to create a new life for the two of them. Off they went to San Francisco to change the world, and have fun on the way. Harvey opened a camera store on the still-straight Castro St which soon became a drop-in center for gay boys helping to create what became a gay mecca.

Inspired to make change Harvey and his buddies launch a politically-naive first campaign for the SF Board of Supervisors. Harvey had a pony-tail and populist stump speech. He came very close for a first-timer. The buddies became a campaign organization that launched two more runs for the Board of Supervisors and a run for the California State Assembly. With all this politicing Harvey’s relationship with Scott crumbled and he was left to his own devices. Harvey met and nurtured a young politico Cleve Jones (Emile Hirsch) who went on to found the AIDS Quilt organization. His next boyfriend was the tragically unbalanced Jack Lira (Diego Luna) who never gelled with Harvey’s friends.

With superb performances, set design that appeared to reconstruct Castro St in the ’70s and a score by the brilliant Danny Elfman, Gus Van Sant has created an essential film for your collection. Not stinting on the gay romance, intimate scenes and kissing, Milk is the story of a legendary gay hero told in legendary style.