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Reviews: Roger Ebert | IMDb External Reviews | Rotten Tomatoes 93% | Metacritic 84%

In Milk, Sean Penn inhabits America’s first self-identified gay politician, Harvey Milk. As with Frank Langella in Frost/Nixon (2008), within seconds I ceased focusing on Sean Penn the actor and was carried away with his brilliant performance as Milk.

Penn is one of the finest actors of his generation. The characters he convincingly plays in, for example, Milk (2008), I Am Sam (2001)  and Dead Man Walking (1995) couldn’t be more different. There are only a few actors capable of his astonishing range – Ed Norton being another.

Josh Brolin plays Milk’s assassin, Dan White. Hitherto unknown to me, Brolin has been on quite the run lately with his terrific performances in Milk, ‘W’ (2008) and 2007’s best picture winner, No Country for Old Men (2007). He’s a solid actor with a bright future.

The movie will be controversial for some. For example the movie demonizes the influential singer and fundamentalist Christian Anita Bryant and her powerful attack on homosexuals. The anti-homosexual political battle that Bryant started in the 70’s, a nation-wide campaign’s to impeded gay rights on all levels, continues (albeit with waning national support) to this day – with Prop 8 being the most prominent recent example.

Gus Van Sant, most famous for the Oscar winning Good Will Hunting (1997) directed Milk. His nomination as best director for Milk is well deserved. His intertwining of historical footage with modern footage was marvellous.

Milk is very good. I strongly recommend it.

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Reviews: Roger Ebert | IMDb External Reviews | Rotten Tomatoes 45% | Metacritic 40%

I hadn’t heard of Best Laid Plans (199) until it showed up as a Reese Witherspoon Wishlist option on my TiVo. Reese is one of my favourite contemporary actresses. Josh Brolin, who I was impressed with in the recent W. (2008), also plays a supporting role. On the basis of that star-power I set my TiVo to record it.

I was initially disappointed with the movie and was about to delete it. As my finger was hovering over the delete button, a rather surprising plot twist occurred. The twist extended my interest enough to watch it to the end. Unfortunately, while the twist made the movie initially more interesting, the script was poor, the less-than-credible plot unravelled, and the movie hobbled across the finishing line.

I love Reese Witherspoon. She rarely disappoints – even in duds. She was in fine, and radiant, form in this movie. Josh Brolin’s performance was rather poor – certainly not up to the level of his terrific performance in W. Co-star Alessandro Nivola’s performance was adequate.

Conclusion

No amount of acting prowess can save a poor script. Best Laid Plans is not a bad movie, and certainly not a good movie. It’s an average movie, of made-for-TV quality. If you enjoy Reese Witherspoon and want to get a look at some of Josh Brolin’s, pre-W. work, this is a decent-enough movie for a Saturday night.

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Reviews: Roger Ebert | IMDb External Reviews | Rotten Tomatoes 56% | Metacritic 56%

W. is Oliver Stone’s take on the life of George W. Bush. The advertising for this movie is misleading. I was half expecting a lampoon-style, slapstick comedy but I got a drama.

Not as blatantly, over-the-top, biased or revisionist as some of Stone’s prior work (JFK, Platoon, Nixon), but still riddled with cheap shots – such as the multiple, and disingenuous, uses of famous Bushisms (or DubyaSpeak) taken out of context.  Nonetheless, the movie is a surprisingly sympathetic and engaging portrait of George W. Bush.

The huge cast is destined to yield Oscar nominations. Josh Brolin embodied Bush. He was absolutely terrific. Richard Dreyfuss (one of my all-time favourite actors) as Cheney was superb. Scott Glenn as Rumsfeld and Jeffrey Wright as Colin Powel were very good. Elizabeth Banks was enjoyable as Laura Bush.

I wasn’t as taken with James Cromwell’s performance as George Herbert Walker Bush. Toby Jones as Rove was miscast. Rove is not the shrinking violet that Jones portrayed. While I have criticized Condoleezza Rice as being too timid and insecure, she is not the squeaky, supercilious, church mouse that Thandie Newton portrays her as. The terrific Ellen Burstyn seemed an afterthought in her role as Mother Bush.

Its an enjoyable movie that is worth seeing. Ebert aptly sums up the movie, and the Bush legacy, as follows:

The film portrays him as incompetent to be president, and shaped by the puppet masters Cheney and Rove to their own ends. If there is a saving grace, it may be that Bush will never fully realize how badly he did. How can he blame himself? He was only following God’s will.