Holiday Movie Guide 2008

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_ on Aug 18, 2009 at 8:13PM

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10 of 29

Milk

Cast: Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, Emile Hirsch, James Franco and Victor Garber
Release date: In select theaters November 26
Why you should see it: Gus Van Sant directs this long-in-development biopic about San Francisco politician and gay-rights leader Harvey Milk (Penn), who was assassinated—along with then S.F. mayor George Moscone (Garber)—by Dan White (Brolin), a political rival of Milk's who tried to use the infamous "Twinkie defense" to explain the murders.
Box office bottom line: The studio, Focus Features, has the same Oscar aspirations for Milk as it had for its last buzzworthy, gay-themed indie flick, Brokeback Mountain. In terms of box office, the movie obviously doesn't fall into the lighthearted-holiday-fare category, but the story has been screaming for a star-studded, big-screen treatment for decades, making Milk a must-see movie for fans who want an engrossing drama and who want to be up on all the movies likely to be in the Oscar race in 2009.