This past weekend both Brad and I had the chance to see Milk in theaters. It opened nationwide this week. We wanted to share our post-film conversation here for you, and hopefully start more conversations about this film and its much loved and admired subject.


Miss Ess: Tell me about your movie-going experience seeing Milk! Where did you see the film? Was it a crowded screening? Did the audience react at all? What did you think of the film overall?

Brad: I am still recovering from this movie watching experience. Seeing movies in theaters is for sure one of my all time favorite things to do. I can't imagine my life without it -- and it is movies like this that continue my obsession. Every once in a while I worry that I have already seen all the great movies of my lifetime -- like I will never see a film again as good as the ones that I have already seen. And I had really high hopes for this film. Gus Van Sant is one of my favorite directors. My Own Private Idaho is probably one of my favorite films of all time. I am staring at the poster in my bedroom right now. I saw this movie when I was 17 and it had a really powerful impact on me. River Phoenix died two years later, so I have those two events forever tied together in my memory. The film became even more powerful and tragic because of his death. It is as if his character has died with the actual actor. Even though he made a couple of films after Idaho this is the film I will always remember him for. And of course Heath Ledger died a couple of years after he made Brokeback Mountain. It is too weird how similar his life and career was to River Phoenix. It is also sort of like James Dean and Rebel Without A Cause. Rebel was the My Own Private Idaho of its time. That is about as much of a gay story as you were going to get in 1955. It is sort of perfect that James Franco played James Dean in that James Dean movie and is now in the Milk movie. I just started thinking about this because of Milk too. Milk obviously ends with a real life tragedy and death. But hopefully Sean Penn will be around for many more decades to bring us many more fantastic films, both in acting and directing.

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This is so Perez-y, I know, but it was exciting for me that a red carpet premiere -- of Milk, no less -- was going on tonight a few blocks from my humble home!


Being a pop culture junkie, I was not gonna miss this. Castro Street was blocked between 18th and Market, and there was indeed an actual red carpet rolled out in front of the Castro Theater for the stars to walk. There were bunches of No on 8 supporters as well, shouting from behind the blockade, erupting each time an actor emerged from the motorcade. Milk stars Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, Diego Luna, Emile Hirsch, and James Franco, and they were all out in full force, and thisclose to me! The movie is a biopic of the beloved Harvey Milk, and many of his friends and supporters from back in the day were out on the red carpet as well, including my old landlord (!), Carol Ruth Silver, who was on the SF Board of Supervisors during Harvey Milk's time and was apparently also targeted by Dan White. She is even portrayed in the movie! This is all news to me! The most surreal moment was definitely seeing Carol Ruth, rail thin and in one of her ever-present hats, arm in arm with Diego Luna and Emile Hirsch, being photographed by the paparazzi. Also on the carpet were the gorgeous Diane Lane, Robin Wright Penn, T.R. Knight and his nearly underaged boyfriend, and, of course, Gavin Newsom. I also spotted Phil Bronstein, former Chronicle editor, former husband of Sharon Stone, and one-time victim of a grisly Komodo Dragon attack.