milk

Gus Van Sant's Milk is the best film for 2008.

A biopic, Milk tells the story of slain civil rights leader and San Francisco politician Harvey Milk, the first openly gay person elected to major public office. Sean Penn delivers a nuanced and affecting performance in the title role, eerily capturing the real man's carriage. Josh Brolin holds his own as Dan White, Milk's assassin, providing the character with a meaty subtext as only Brolin could. The rest of the cast-James Franco and Emile Hirsch, to name a few-shines, as does Van Sant's direction. Writer Dustin Lance Black's script, in spite of borrowing the structure and some dialogue from the 1984 documentary The Times of Harvey Milk, also deserves praise.

But Milk transcends biopic, drawing parallels between America in 1978 and 2008. Harvey Milk, with his barrier-breaking election and message of hope, was the Barack Obama of his day. His successful fight against California Proposition 6, a ballot issue to ban gays from teaching in public schools, is all the more poignant in light of Proposition 8. But the film's relevance to modern times is deeper than politics. Unlike other heavy-hitting films of the year that dwell on the sad state of the world, Milk is a film of hope, celebrating the possibility of a brighter tomorrow.

Milk might lack the technical and aesthetic aspects that cinephiles look for, but the strength of its performances and its message are enough. More than any other film of the year, even the environmentally-minded WALL-E, the film captures the zeitgeist of 2008. It is more than a movie.

As Harvey Milk famously said, "You have to give them hope." And that's just what Milk delivers.