‘Milk’

Much has been made of Sean Penn’s performance in the extremely engaging “Milk,” which follows the rise and tragic assassination of one of California’s pioneering gay politicians, Harvey Milk. The subtle shift in Penn’s voice, the change of its timbre, the ever so slight tilt of his head, the tension in his hand, the droop of his shoulder -- all of it fuses together to create a living, breathing, dimensional human on screen. But Penn takes it a step further, making the performance transcendent. He finds Milk’s soul and by touching that deep internal core turns the man into the abstract ideal of equal rights for all people regardless of, well, anything. It is a remarkable transformation that leaves trails of discussions in its wake, forcing you to think, yet again, of the destructive nature of fear and prejudice and hate. The amalgam created by director Gus Van Sant with Penn as its anything but soft center elevates “Milk” to a classic.