Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Got Milk?

Sitting on my desk is the Nov. 24-30 edition of Variety with a giant, wrap-around ad for Milk. The ad pictures Sean Penn's smiling, slightly addled mug and a long, laudatory quote from Peter Travers, who calls Milk "a total triumph, brimming with humor and heart." "An American classic." And, "If there's a better movie around this year, with more bristling purpose, I sure haven't seen it."

Which has to be the most unsurprising review ever. Maybe Milk really is the best movie of 2008. I haven't seen it, so I don't know. What I do know is that Milk will be the best-reviewed movie of 2008, no matter what. It's from indie darling Gus Van Sant. It's a true story. It's about a gay-rights pioneer. A gay-rights pioneer who was assassianted! It deals prominently and happily with homosexuality. And it stars Sean Penn. The only way this picture could be more critic-friendly is if Harvey Milk had been an alcoholic and/or physically disabled.

Seriously, who in the world would have the stones to pan this movie? I was sort of amazed to see that it had only a 94 percent rating from Rotten Tomatoes.

Who are the 7 critics who dared to say Milk didn't do a body good?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi, read your blog and noticed right away you spelled "assassinated wrong. Nothing can take away from viewers poor grammar.

Anonymous said...

Orthographical errors that don't change the structure or meaning of the phrase don't really count as "poor grammar."

Anonymous said...

JVL...couldn't agree more on your assessment of Milk's reviews...saw a review that called the making of it "courageous"...that had to be a joke! Now making a pro-military movie...that would take some stones!

Anonymous said...

Well, even Michael Medved gave it a favorable review, with some caveats.

Anonymous said...

Slumdog Millionaire. End of story.

See it.

Anonymous said...

It's just like a deaf-mute in Miss America. You can't beat a deaf-mute.

Anonymous said...

Anon 12:42, who said...

Hi, read your blog and noticed right away you spelled "assassinated wrong. Nothing can take away from viewers poor grammar.

Just wanted to point out you forgot to close those quotations.

Anonymous said...

What Jason said.

I've seen a lot of movies this year, and SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE is the best one yet. My God, it's a thing of beauty. Fantastic music; gorgeous camera work; Dickensian epic of a story. I think it's the best thing Danny Boyle has done yet. It gives you a world you can completely lose yourself in; a world that is heartbreaking and redemptive and wonderful and deeply
sad. I won't say anything about the plot, because it would just ruin it for you. I will say that there's a moment at the end when the film runs in reverse, and if it doesn't bring you to tears then you have no soul.

Go see it, as soon as you can. It's fantastic!