Reviews for Milk

The first reviews for Milk couldn't have come at a better time. I chose the Milk preview for today's Media Bar because I really wanted to loop gay rights into the larger example of the successes of the civil rights movements of the past decades, Variety says:which is what so much of this election season has been about. And the reviews are glowing.

And on a project whose greatest danger lay in its potential to come across as agenda-driven agitprop, the filmmakers have crucially infused the story with qualities in very short supply today -- gentleness and a humane embrace of all its characters, even of the entirely vilifiable gunman, Dan White.

And from The Hollywood Reporter:

"Milk," written by Dustin Lance Black and directed by Gus Van Sant, is the first great film to look at civil rights from the perspective of the gay movement . . . Yes, it's a biopic, a love story, a civil rights movie and sharp political and social commentary. But it transcends any single genre as a very human document that touches first and foremost on the need to give people hope.

The film is superbly crafted, covering huge amounts of time, people and the zeitgeist without a moment of lapsed energy or inattention to detail. Even the opening moments -- black-and-white archival footage of cops rousting men covering their faces from gay bars of the '50s and '60s, the kind of harassment that led to the 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York -- offer a poignant reminder of what was not that long ago.

You can watch the trailer for the movie in today's Media Bar. Is there a better reminder that when our leaders won't stand up for us, we can stand up for ourselves? Milk opens Wednesday, Nov. 26