“Milk”
****
Few biographical movies about social-justice heroes achieve the perfect tone in Gus Van Sant’s “Milk.” Sean Penn does arguably his finest turn as Harvey Milk, who in 1977 became the nation’s first openly gay male elected official when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Van Sant brings his gift for hushed detail to a story that is larger than life and unequivocally in the main. (Keep an eye open for the director’s favorite shot: a bloodied whistle.) In “Milk” the heroic is captured not with cradle-to-grave grandiosity. Instead, writer Dustin Lance Black confines the action to New York-born Milk’s rise as a community galvanizer to his death. He and Mayor George Moscone were murdered by former City Supervisor Dan White on Nov. 27, 1978. Josh Brolin plays the former fireman who sneaked into City Hall and killed the men. R. 2 hours, 8 minutes. Lisa Kennedy
“Australia”
***
Aussies Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman star in director Baz Luhrmann’s romantic adventure set in the land Down Under on the eve of World War II. She plays English aristocrat Lady Sarah Ashley, traveling to Australia to find her husband, believing his return home has been for reasons other than selling their Outback spread. Jackman plays The Drover, an expert cattle driver who collects her at the port of Darwin and will take her to Faraway Downs, then drive her cattle to market. Of course, we know long before Lady Ashley and The Drover do where they’re really headed. “Australia” is also a loving throwback to old-fashioned epics about power plays for resources. At 2 1/2 hours, “Australia” is long. Indeed, it comes with a handful of endings. We cried at every one of them. PG-13. 2 hours, 35 minutes. Lisa Kennedy
“Cadillac Records”
**1/2
Given the lives of subjects Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Willie Dixon, Etta James, Chuck Berry, Howlin’ Wolf and Leonard Chess, “Cadillac Records” should be a slam dunk of a biopic — a film rife with drama and sadness, beauty and integrity. “Cadillac Records” certainly plays off the strengths of its story — the unwavering loyalty of label man Chess to his first signed artist, Muddy Waters, and Little Walter’s heartbreaking fall to alcoholism. But the film tries too hard, and its storytelling is sometimes clunky. R. 1 hour, 49 minutes. Ricardo Baca
