i was lucky enough to go to a preview screening of milk tonight. to be honest it was the one film of the oscar season that i was least looking forward to seeing; im a big fan of penn but from the publicity material milk looked to be the sort of film i would have usually expected to see the likes of tom hanks in, it just screamed “give me an oscar”! add to this the fact that im hardly a fan of gus van sant and i entered the film with trepidation.

alas i was wrong. milk proved to be a beautiful and stirring piece of cinema. it satisfied in just about every way, be it in the emotions of the characters or the thrills one wouldnt usually associate with this sort of story. sean penn puts in a great performance, which is fairly important considering hes in practically every scene. josh brolin leads a strong support cast, with great turns from emille hirsh, diega luna (nice to see him post-y tu mama tambien) and especially james franco (who proves to be a complete and utter revelation.

for me the oscar race has heated up. i didnt really consider milk to be much of a contender, but after tonight i find it difficult to believe that there has been a better performance this year than that of sean penn as harvey milk.