The Stranger

American gay-rights-hero Harvey Milk has already been the subject of one brilliant film: 1984's Oscar-winning documentary The Times of Harvey Milk. But thanks to the world-class artistry of director Gus Van Sant and star Sean Penn, the Hollywood version of Milk's life story holds its own with the existing classic. Major props must go to Milk the man, the gay late bloomer who became a political force, and whose life story is packed with enough gay drama, political intrigue, and true crime to fuel one of Milk's beloved operas. As for the living artists behind Milk, they deserve props of their own. Working in his straightforward Hollywood mode, Van Sant gets the job done and stays in the background, his presence felt most strongly in the film's comfortably unabashed sexuality. (There's tongue in the first five minutes.) But the lion's share of credit for Milk's success belongs to Penn, whose devotion to the film helped secure its production, and whose performance in the title role is a major accomplishment: quietly amazing, simultaneously lived-in and spontaneous, his best ever. By David Schmader

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