Milk, 2008 [* * * * *]

It's a real-life story of Harvey Milk, the gay activist. How he got to be the first openly-gay elected representative in the US. It's a wonderful story about how the years past 40 (he woke up and came out of the closet after he turned 40) can be both meaningful and important to the world.

Sean Penn can act wonderfully well - he's a convincing Harvey in virtually every move! Well worth seeing for his fans.

The movie itself might be a difficult watch for most professed homophobics - there are gay men in every field, all ages and shapes and sizes doing their thing - mostly because, like Anita Bryant, for the first time you'll be looking at the world from a minority-perspective.

(For me, being a woman, asian and activist, the movie wasn't as hard - but then, I'm a gay hag: I just love most gay men, and have often fallen in love with closetted ones. They're just better-looking, better educated or more expressive than heteros ... maybe all the above!:)

But just one gross misrepresentation - Milk wasn't a martyr for gays. The movie isn't about his dying for his gayness. He was killed for playing politics and preventing a rival from getting his job back.