Milk, Dark Knight and the Year's Best Films

Here's just the firestarter we need to kick off the Obama years. Milk is that rarest of free birds: a true political film. It finds its bristling purpose in humanity, not ideology. Sean Penn tops even himself for transformative acting as Harvey Milk, the gay social activist who fought for civil rights in San Francisco until he was assassinated in 1978. The recent victory in California for Proposition 8, banning gay marriage, shows that Harvey's fight is far from over. Is there a more artful, impassioned, shockingly pertinent movie around this year? I don't think so. Thrillingly directed by the invaluable, underrated Gus Van Sant from an original, Oscar-worthy script by Dustin Lance Black, Milk raises the bar on what a film biography can do. You can feel Harvey's spirit alive in it.