Put this baby in line for all kinds of year-end awards. Sean Penn stars as Harvey Milk, San Francisco's openly gay supervisor who was assassinated in 1978 by Dan White (Josh Brolin), a former city supervisor. White used the now-infamous "Twinkie defense" at his trial to win a lesser sentence. At the heart of this movie, directed by Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting) and featuring James Franco as Milk's lover, Scott Smith, is Milk's fight for gay rights. In a freakish hint of his own death, Milk recorded a message that could serve as a rallying cry for gay activism: "If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door."