Milk

There's a frisky lightness of touch to Gus Van Sant's impressive new biopic that prevents the movie from sagging beneath the usual weight of a period drama, and though the tale may be tragic, there is little cod-solemnity.

This is the story of Harvey Milk (Sean Penn), the San Francisco activist elected to the city's Board of Supervisors in 1977 and murdered the following year, along with the city's Mayor (Victor Garber), by a former supervisor named Dan White (Josh Brolin).

Milk was one of the first openly gay elected officials in America, a fact that inspired many and infuriated some, but above all else demanded a shift in American politics and culture. We follow him here from New York City to the West Coast, from camera store owner to political recruiter, and chart his relationships and friendships as they rise and fall with his success.

Van Sant's portrait of this pioneer is tender, intelligent and greatly aided by the casting of Penn, who brings his full actorly muscle to the role, playing Milk as a smart, clever, imperfect individual who was also blessed with substantial kindness.

Van Sant has made a career out of conjuring melancholy, but here his tendency towards dreaminess is balanced by the story's hard city politics, allowing the film to be at once intimate and inspiring - and probably one of cinema's finest moments this year. ·