Yesterday I took Roscoe to Runyon Canyon and he had a blast. It was a picture perfect sunset. Doesn’t he look handsome?
Later that evening, Claudio & Ryan drove down and we went to see “Milk” and then had dinner. The reviews are right, it was really well done and we all enjoyed it. This review from slate.com, particularly resonated:
Few reviewers will miss the opportunity to point out—the parallels are hard to ignore—that Harvey Milk was the Barack Obama of his day, a minority candidate who represented change, opposed the party machine, and preached a gospel of hope. Milk’s stump speech was dubbed the Hope Speech, and the last line of his recorded will, which also closes the film, was: “You gotta give them hope.” Milk was also, in essence, a community organizer, a grassroots populist with a gift for reaching out across San Francisco’s patchwork of minorities. After Prop 8 passed, some gay activists were all too eager to blame blacks and Latinos (two groups in which majorities voted “yes”) and to define the problem along racial lines. Milk’s impassioned rhetoric of inclusivity—he called his hodgepodge coalition, which ran from Asians to seniors to blacks to labor unions, “the us-es”—is helpful to keep in mind in light of the recent finger-pointing.
Viewed in a post-Prop 8 environment, Milk might well suggest strategies for the culture wars to come. But had it appeared earlier, could this particular battle have been won? While it’s naive to presume that movies can swing electorates—just ask Michael Moore—those what-if questions are hard to dismiss, not least for the filmmakers. Interviewed by the San Francisco Bay Guardian recently, Van Sant conceded, “Harvey would have opened it in October.”
That the question of timing and impact is being raised says something about where Milk falls on the spectrum of gay cinema. In one sense, it belongs with the AIDS melodrama Philadelphia and the closet weepie Brokeback Mountain in the relatively small group of serious gay-themed Hollywood movies that, partly because of their scarcity, still exist as consciousness-raising vehicles or as markers of social progress. (Milk is all but guaranteed a good night at the Oscars, given that many members of the Academy are likely to see a vote for Milk as a vote against Prop 8, not to mention a way to make up for giving the Oscar that was thought a lock for Brokeback Mountain, also a Focus release, to the odious Crash.) Read more…
So Milk and Slumdog Millionaire are clearly my two early Oscar favorites. Apparently, I’m not the only one who thinks so. This chart from the LA Times compiles several critics early pics. Slumdog is the one consistent Best Picture pick across the board.
“Slumdog Millionaire” is truly the top dog in our latest round of Oscar pundits’ predix. It’s the only contender in the best picture race that gets a vote from all six of us pundits, who include Anthony Breznican (USA Today), Edward Douglas (ComingSoon.net), Peter Howell (Toronto Star), Steve Pond, author, “The Big Show“) and Kris Tapley (InContention.com).
| BEST PICTURE |
Breznican |
Douglas |
Howell |
O’Neil |
Pond |
Tapley |
| ‘Benjamin Button’ |
X
|
|
X
|
X
|
X
|
X
|
| ‘Dark Knight’ |
X
|
X
|
X
|
|
X
|
|
| ‘Frost/Nixon’ |
X
|
X
|
|
X
|
|
X
|
| ‘Gran Torino’ |
X
|
|
|
|
|
|
| ‘Milk’ |
|
X
|
X
|
X
|
X
|
X
|
| ‘The Reader’ |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| ‘Revolutionary Road’ |
|
X
|
X
|
X
|
X
|
X
|
| ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ |
X
|
X
|
X
|
X
|
X
|
X
|
| BEST ACTOR |
Breznican |
Douglas |
Howell |
O’Neil |
Pond |
Tapley |
| Leo DiCaprio, ‘Revolutionary Road |
|
|
|
X
|
X
|
X
|
| Clint Eastwood, ‘Gran Torino’ |
X
|
|
X
|
X
|
|
X
|
| Richard Jenkins, ‘The Visitor’ |
X
|
X
|
|
|
|
|
| Frank Langella, ‘Frost/Nixon’ |
X
|
X
|
X
|
X
|
X
|
X
|
| Sean Penn, ‘Milk’ |
|
X
|
X
|
X
|
X
|
X
|
| Brad Pitt, ‘Benjamin Button’ |
X
|
X
|
X
|
|
X
|
|
| Mickey Rourke, ‘The Wrestler’ |
X
|
X
|
X
|
X
|
X
|
X
|
| BEST ACTRESS |
Breznican |
Douglas |
Howell |
O’Neil |
Pond |
Tapley |
| Kate Beckinsale, ‘Nothing But the Truth’ |
|
X
|
|
|
|
|
| Anne Hathaway, ‘Rachel Getting Married’ |
X
|
X
|
X
|
X
|
X
|
X
|
| Sally Hawkins, ‘Happy-Go-Lucky’ |
|
|
|
X
|
|
|
| Angelina Jolie, ‘Changeling’ |
X
|
|
X
|
X
|
X
|
X
|
| Nicole Kidman, ‘Australia’ |
X
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Meryl Streep, ‘Doubt’ |
X
|
X
|
X
|
X
|
X
|
X
|
| Kristin Scott Thomas, ‘I’ve Loved You So Long’ |
|
X
|
X
|
|
X
|
X
|
| Kate Winslet, ‘Revolutionary Road’ |
X
|
X
|
X
|
|
X
|
X
|
| Kate Winslet, ‘The Reader’ |
|
|
|
X
|
|
|
After the movie, we came back to the Careyfornia for some leftover cherry pie. Life is good.
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