Unapologetically gay!

"Unapologetically GAY. Penn's best in 13 years."

This is what Nathaniel Rogers' over at The Film Experience had to say after his screening of Milk. I am on pins and needles waiting for his full write up of this film, but, it sounds like it's a winner! AND it sounds like Penn may be the front runner in the Best Actor race.

As much as I want to see Mickey Rourke walk away with it...I do believe it is going to be hard for the Academy to forgive and forget his tumble down the cellar stairs into the no-man's land of substance abuse, and self-destruction. If he gets his career back...that's his reward. I hope for the best for him, I really do. He's a damn fine actor, and I think, under all the machismo, a gentle and decent person.

It's funny though, because Penn hasn't exactly been a model citizen. However, one thing Penn always was, even in his darkest time...was professional. He has been able to keep his ship righted, and his shit together. Unlike, say, his tragic brother Chris who died of heart failure with cocaine and codeine in his bloodstream.  

But, as for the film itself.  Can you imagine how great it would be to see Milk win the Best Picture Oscar?  In light of the Proposition 8 debacle?  With an Obama White House?  It would certainly silence the crowd who deemed the Academy homophobic after Brokeback Mountain failed. 

 Personally, I'm not sure Brokeback or Crash deserved to win that year.  I predicted Crash as the winner just based on their Oscar campaign, and the fact that there were SO many academy members in the film, and SO many actors with Academy members behind them.  You just start doing the math, and those numbers start to work.

And then you figure in the homophobia of the Academy, and well, there you have it. 

Milk opens December 5th