Anyone want to discuss MILK?

[dalefully]

Posted: 11/26/08 at 11:55pm

So I just got back from seeing it and oh my goodness, what a fantastic film. Beautifully made, AMAZINGLY acted (especially, of course, on Penn's part), and immensely moving. For over two hours, it manages to grab you and not let go.

Personally, I found that even beyond the pretty clear political motives of the movie, it really forces you to think. I think the only way the timing could have been any more perfect is if it were released a month ago.

I could go on raving about it for a while, and tons of critics already have, so all I can really say is GO SEE IT.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 11/27/08 at 12:08am

[Paul W. Thompson]

Posted: 11/27/08 at 12:47am

It has gotten the most amazing reviews! I intend to see it on Saturday here in Chicago.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 11/27/08 at 12:51am

I'd love to discuss the movie but I don't use the word "amazing".

[CapnHook]

Posted: 11/27/08 at 1:01am

It's not playing here yet. I think it opens in more theatres on Dec 5.

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 11/27/08 at 1:06am

Dammit. I really want to see it but it's not playing anywhere.

And I also need to see SYNECDOCHE NEW YORK which is also not playing anywhere.

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 11/27/08 at 1:21am

Namo, do you use the word "amazing" when it is meant as "causing great surprise or sudden wonder" as opposed to "good"? Or are you just so sick of the word's being over-used that you have eliminated it from your vocabulary all together? (I try to give it a pass when used literally, but that doesn't happen too often anymore.)

And I love that Malcolm McDowell milk ad.

I'm looking forward to seeing this film. I still think Sean Penn looks like my dad.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 11/27/08 at 1:31am

The film is very very good. One of the best I've seen all year. I have removed the word "amazing" from my vocabulary because too many people are amazed by some of the most banal (that rhymes with "anal") things I've ever heard about. AMAZED, I tell you.

The last straw for me came two years ago when somebody started a thread announcing that Starbucks was using it's holiday themed cardboard cups and somebody else chimed in that the Starbucks holiday cups are AMAZING.

I mean, really.

[tazber]

Posted: 11/27/08 at 1:38am

HAHA! I don't know why, but for some reason that story really cracked me up.

Regarding the movie, I haven't seen it yet.
Looking forward to it though.

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 11/27/08 at 1:38am

Sean Penn is such a talented actor. And, of course, the story is so compelling. I can't wait to see it.

I have heard people use the word "amazing" in a string of sentences and then heard the people responding to them use the word "amazing" in a string of sentences. It practically doesn't have a meaning anymore!

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 11/27/08 at 1:57am

Exactly. If a person is AMAZED by a cardboard cup, where is there left to go? Does a flip book make his or her head explode?

How has it come to pass that a word once used as a rare superlative is utterly eroded to nothing?

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 11/27/08 at 2:17am

Namo, not sure how it came to pass, but I have a theory. Rather than trying to find the precise words to articulate what they want to say, people want "pre-fab" words they can simply grab and insert. (This relates to my larger observation about how people want everything NOW and they want it CHEAP.)

Another problem is reading and writing. I read a plausible theory about 20 years ago asserting that students don't READ anymore; therefore, the students who grow up to become teachers don't really know how to write well themselves, let alone teach writing. And that was long before email, blogging and message boards sprang up.

I sometimes wonder, though, if email, blogging and message boards are contributing in a positive way to the lost art of written communication.

P.S. One of my dearest friends has a Master's Degree from HARVARD, and she uses the word "amazing" more than anyone I have ever heard, seen or read!

[tazber]

Posted: 11/27/08 at 2:17am

same as "awesome". It carries about as much weight as Kate Moss on a skinny day.

And I'm guilty of using it in its watered down sense.

But not amazing. Even I draw the line at amazing.

[theaterdude87]

Posted: 11/27/08 at 2:33am

The film was very good. But I did have some issues with it. I felt the relationship between Harvey and Dan was not built up enough at all, and they focused way too much on the beginning, which bothered me. I also felt like Anne Kronenberg could have been a bigger role because she was a big part of his life.

Sean Penn was wonderful, will get a oscar nomination.

The major person I had an issue with was Emilie Hirsch... I really was just annoyed with his character as well as Some Gus Van Sant things, but that is expected... like the telephone hour.

All in all though it is a good film, I really did and I enjoyed the footage that was real mixed into it.

[Biff AKA Levi]

Posted: 11/27/08 at 5:12am

From all reports, Emilee played Cleve Jones. That's how Cleve Jones was, if not still is. Wrapped up in this big, circus like environment that Harvey created.

I love this movie. I thought Sean was completely involved. James Franco grounded the film. He was sublte enough, and a nice balance, to Harvey's larger than life life. Alison Pill was a delight.

Honestly, there isn't much to the story. Dan White does something so senseless, so illogical, that there really isn't a way to describe it. He kills Milk and Mascone because they teamed up and wouldn't let him back on the board. That's it. It has nothing to do with homophobia. It has nothing to do with twinkies. If Feinstein had been there (she wasn't in the office for three weeks prior to the killings), and talked Mascone into not letting White back on the board, she would've been killed. It just happened to be Milk.

I suggest every one pick up a copy of the SF Chronicle. There have been a number of articles written on the film. In this week's, Fienstein talks about the "day of Infamy". She says that she wishes she tried harder to get White's attention. She called out to him after he killed Mascone, and when he was on his way to kill Milk, but he didn't respond.

I know this has nothing to do with the movie itself, but it's still interesting. It's a tragic film. The acting is so raw, and so real, and I think it's made better that it's actually shot in San Francisco. The scenes in the Castro Camera are actually filmed in Milk's real store. (I peeked in today, for the first time. The store is called Given. There's a mural of Milk, with a gun, and the quote, “If a bullet should go through my head let that bullet go through every closet door.” I stood there, for a few moments before I went into work.)

I couldn't stand Diego Luna's character. I wanted to slap the little bastard.

I cried, but just a little. Milk's death didn't affect me, but the marching did. The passion in their voices got to me. The look on their faces got to me. I know it's silly, but I love how every one on the film was involved. If I just moved here a year earlier, I could've been in it.

I hope Sean wins the Oscar. He definitely deserves it. Emile should be nominated for a best supporting actor. He does a fine job.

I love how Gus used archive footage of Anita Bryant and Feinstein. It makes the movie all the more real.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/27/08 at 9:05am

Looking forward to seeing it this weekend.

[Paul W. Thompson]

Posted: 11/27/08 at 9:05am

RE my use of the word "amazing."

I meant it.

I do not use that word to mean "positive," I use it to mean "awe-inducing." I was TRULY AMAZED while reading the reviews. The word refered to me and my reaction, not to the content of the reviews.

Soap box done.

[nealb1]

Posted: 11/27/08 at 11:00am

Saw the film last night and it was fantastic! Sean Penn has the Oscar nom, and win for this film. He completely transforms himself into Harvey Milk. James Franco was very, very good.

It's very obvious that Dan White was a very disturbed person. I do wish that the film would have gone into more of his spiral downward. Maybe, when the dvd comes out, there will be deleted scenes of him?

Using old, grainy footage of the Castro from the 70's was a brilliant way of telling the story. That is was history does - it repeats itself. With Prop 6, to today's Prop 8. Hate and intolerance is still out there. Can you even imagine being arrested and getting beaten up because you are different? It boggles my mind to think that it actually happened!

Going to San Fran tomorrow for the long weekend and I'll be seeing "Milk," again, tomorrow afternoon. Was just there this past weekend, as well. And, have been in Harvey Milk's old camera shop quite a few times. To think that such history was made in such a small store front, is "amazing." Yes, it is.

Little off topic here.......the same can be said about the word awesome these days. So many young people use that word to describe.........well, everything! It's absurd. Awesome means something so great.....the Grand Canyon is awesome, the universe is awesome. Getting a cup of coffee at Starbucks is not awesome. So many people these days just don't use adjectives to describe things. Same with the word cool.

Updated On: 11/27/08 at 11:00 AM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 11/27/08 at 11:31am

"I was TRULY AMAZED while reading the reviews."

You have got to be kidding.

[wexy]

Posted: 11/27/08 at 11:35am

I thought the word was retired when Kreskin died. "Milk" is coming to BAM soon where I will see the film.

Updated On: 11/27/08 at 11:35 AM

[pushdabutton]

Posted: 11/27/08 at 11:46am

I am looking forward to seeing it this weekend.

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 11/27/08 at 12:16pm

Kreskin died?

[frogs_fan85]

Posted: 11/27/08 at 1:03pm

I saw the film yesterday also, and really enjoyed it. I really liked how the framing of the film with Milk narrating into the tape recorder. All of the supporting performances were spectacular especially James Franco and Emile Hirsch. Brolin's Dan White was so creepy and yet somehow also sympathetic in a way. Masterful work all around. One interesting tidbit: AT the end of the film when they present additional information, when the screen about Dan White and what eventually happened to him appeared, people in the audience clapped. I found it an odd reaction to clap for someone's suicide.

[wexy]

Posted: 11/27/08 at 1:17pm

Oops.. I must've confused Kreskin with someone else amazing
my apologies to the the mentalist, he has a gig this week
http://www.amazingkreskin.com/

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 11/27/08 at 1:23pm

Thanks for the correction, Wexy! I thought I'd missed an important obit!

I remember Kreskin's appearing on the Tonight Show decades ago when Steve Martin was guest-hosting for Johnny. As Steve raised a cup of coffee to his lips, he asked, "May I call you 'The Amazing'?" Maybe when his son "takes over the family business," he can call himself "The Awesome Kreskin."