Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Milk, Finally Spilled

the trailer



Sean Penn looks and sounds pretty great, right? Oscar Nom #5 coming right up. But between this and W., is Josh Brolin planning to be the most despicable person alive this fall (onscreen I mean)? Perhaps he got jealous of Javier Bardem's malevolent awards spree last year.
*

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

If the trailer is an indicator about the movie this one is LOCKED is so many categories! And the music from 'The Life Of David Gale" ALWAYS amazing! What a great score that was! Anyway Milk is up for many oscars!

NATHANIEL R said...

But... when you mention THE LIFE OF DAVID GALE you know we have to start worrying ;)

Anonymous said...

The trailer just exceeded my expectations ten fold; but I gotta be honest, i thought it looked like Penn was the weakest link here a couple times. i thought that line about reproduction sounded funny, but what was up with that giggle? I don't know a whole lot about Harvey but that seemed kinda cartoonish/stereotypical

Anonymous said...

O my, It made me cry!

Roberta Lipp said...

Really beautiful.

Anonymous said...

Looks like a typical biopic. Meh.

NATHANIEL R said...

typical biopic?

where's the childhood moment that Explains it All!? the fall from grace and descent into drugs or drink? the comeback?

;)

J.D. said...

Okay, WOW. My excitement for it just skyrocketed. Actually, I think it's gonna reach Australia-levels of anticipation soon.

*gasp*

whitney said...

Scott and I saw Franco crying on Castro street. It was a triple shock: Franco? Crying??? Milk!!!

Anonymous said...

I just know that I'm going to cry my eyes out during this film.

Can. Not. Wait!

Rob said...

I love the subject matter, but don't trust Van Sant. But this trailer, regardless of the finished product, is fucking fantastic. It's so well-done and insanely well put-together and scored; I'm officially now dying to see it.

Anonymous said...

1. You totally stole my line about Brolin, Nathaniel.

2. Sean Penn is a little hit and miss in the trailer, but it seems like a characterization completely unlike anything he's ever done, and I really like that.

3. van Sant gave us one of the 90's great movies with My Own Private Idaho, so I pretty much will watch everything he does. Even if it's crap. That one movie pretty much ensures lifetime devotion.

Crisbrother said...

I always root for at list one movie every year come oscar season, LOTR, M dollar B, Brokeback, Babel, Atonement & There Will Be Blood.... so this year, beside Benjamin Button, it seems like i'll be rooting for Milk aswell.

The trailer was very well crafted, or at list interest to see, specially for those who don't know harvey's story, though i've allready wikied him..haha... well high hopes for this film, and its perfonces specially form Penn, Brolin and Franco...

NATHANIEL R said...

crisbrother --i'm glad that people are learning about Milk now but PLEASE for all that is holy, rent the Oscar winning documentary on Milk.

It's so incredible. Gus Van Sant really has his work cut out for him to equal that doc.

RJ said...

I'm sorry, but I fucking loved that trailer. Everything about it. BP.

adam k. said...

Is it just me, or is Penn's Milk a little too reminiscent of Penn's Sam? Yes, that Sam. That bothers me on a few different levels. But I guess if that's what the real Milk sounded like, I can't really blame him.

Other than that, though, great trailer. I'm pumped to see it.

Beau said...

That was phenomenal.

I'm gonna make a bold claim here, it just feels right: I think, if there is an overwhelming consensus on the Prop. 8 business here in Cali come November and the thing goes down in flames (rightly so), it will be a victory that reverberates throughout the country and may make the transition into the pop culture consciousness.

I see it similar to the situation a couple of years ago where some people felt that if Bush lost the election in 2004, 'Fahrenheit 9/11' would have been nominated for Best Picture. I have more confidence in making the prediction that, if Prop 8 goes down, Penn wins for 'Milk'.

...too soon? Or early, for that matter?

Anonymous said...

trailer great interet peaked oscar no 2 for penn nom no 1 for brolin and after bbm don't you think the academy realised it's mistake as far as gay themed films go.

Anonymous said...

I thought the trailer was a bit too sentimental (what with all the "You don't have to do this!" and overbearing string music), but I'm a Van Sant fan so I'm holding out for the film to surprise me.

Janice said...

I confess I haven't seen the documentary Nat (*makes note to add it to list of must-sees) but the trailer for this has me really excited. Given the upcoming presidential election (and the right-wing moron - excuse me - lady - McCain has picked for a running mate,) the timing feels perfect for this.

I'm glad the film "goes there" (gay rights and all that.) Even BM never uses the word, as I recall, and lots of critics - including the one for the New Yorker, of all publications, were able to say "it's not about gayness". (huh?)

I'm also thinking Josh Brolin better polish his Oscar speech if he hasn't already. Between last year, this film, and the upcoming W, I can't see him not getting a little gold man within the next couple of years.

Anonymous said...

Gaaaaahhhhh.
It looks sooooo good.
I've got a good feeling about this.
I could be worried that the trailer will be better than the film, but in Van Sant we trust. I would like to try and make babies with HIM.

ryansumera said...

supporting actor.

franco vs. ledger anyone?

Anonymous said...

Wow, that was so good. Sean Penn's getting another Oscar nomination! Go Harvey!

Anonymous said...

In '89 I was 21 and, by chance, caught the '84 documentary about Harvey Milk. It was amazing to see such a documentary being shown on a southern Missouri television station. Though I cannot say I've ever been anti-gay, I had been raised around serious anti-gay sentiment and had lots of questions about gay rights at the time. Thank goodness that southern Missouri station took the risk of showing that documentary and, therefore, took a risk on me. I admit I cried my eyes out and realized I had been asking the wrong question all along. The question, I discovered, is NOT, "Should (whatever group) have equal rights?" The question IS, "Since we all have equal rights, how can I be part of making that fact a reality?" It is true that a 90 minute documentary can change a life. I cannot wait to see the movie! Thanks!

Anonymous said...

After all of the bickering and complaining about Jamie Foxx, Philip Seymour, Marion and Cate Blanchett about mimicking and hating biopics or people playing real people (on this site). Let's see what happens this time.

Oh wait.. this is about a Gay man so it's okay this time. Rolling Eyes.

Glenn said...

If I'm not mistaken Nat is a fan of Hoffman in Capote and Blanchett in The Aviator so you can cross them off. He's also like plenty of other biopics. But, for me, I dislike Cotillard because there was no light and shade it was just B-I-G moments with a lot of shouting but not emotional connection - which, granted, can be put a little bit down to not knowing much about Piaf, and I dislike Foxx because he was smug and predictable throughout the whole thing. Doesn't help that a lot of people who dislike those performances dislike the films they're in.

It's just that when a movie decides to show you a person's like from their childhood where something happens to them to send them on their future course, followed by achieving fame and then descending into alcoholism and drug abuse before they fight their way back with a big comeback as if everybody who is famous followed the same trajectory in life.

That Harvey Milk is gay will surely have some baring on a lot of people's opinion of the film, but if Gus Van Sant churned out a film like Ray or La Vie en Rose or Walk the Line (which was far better than Ray or La vie en rose, but was still cliched) then I'm sure Nat and others would say so. Nat's not the kind of person to just praise queer cinema because it's there. Most of the time queer cinema is worse than the rest.

Besides, I'd much rather a biopic on anybody's life follow a significant part of the person's life like Capote did, or Monster.

phew

And, yes, The Times of Harvey Milk is a great doco. If you've seen it you can say Sean Penn has "become" Harvey Milk, no? LOL.

I hate that line. No actor ever becomes another person entirely. Unless you've never seen a movie before, it's always quite obvious that there is an actor doing a performance there.

NATHANIEL R said...

thanks Glenn. I knew comments like 'rolling eyes anonymous' would be forthcoming if i end up liking the movie but nuance is difficult for people.

Once more with feeling it goes like this:

I dislike the biopic genre not because it's stories of true lives but because the films within the genre tend to be unimaginative. For whatever reason it seems to promote laziness in directors and knee jerk praise for acting whether the performer in question digs deep into the role or not.

some recent "MIMICRY" performances that i myself nominated or came close to nominating (again it's the nuance thing. I don't think mimicry is evil. I just think it's ridiculously overrewarded with Oscar. That's a big difference:

Cate Blanchett in The Aviator (silver medal)
Will Smith in Ali (honorable mention)
Philip Seymour Hoffman in Capote (nominee)
David Straitharin in Good Night and Good Luck (silver medal)
Forrest Whitaker in The Last King of Scotland (silver medal)
Charlize Theron in Monster (honorable mention)
Reese Witherspoon in Walk the Line (silver medal or bronze can't remember)
Liam Neeson in Kinsey
Angela Basset in What's Love Got to Do With It

etcetera...

Anonymous said...

Marion Cotillard and Jamie Foxx were both excellent in their respective films and earned their Oscar wins. If Sean Penn hadn't already won for "Mystic River," "Milk" would probably be his golden ticket too. I love biopics, so I won't contribute to the hate at least.