Gus Van Sant

As we gear up for the Oscars, I'll be featuring the nominees for Best Costume Design. It's a big year for this category as the films nominated represent vastly different historical periods. Be it 18th-century England or San Francisco in the '70s, these films include some gorgeous threads. I've already presented galleries for four out of the five nominees, so today the final movie is Milk.

People often think of San Francisco's "Summer of Love" as the city's major cultural movement, but Gus Van Sant's biopic Milk features the life of gay activist Harvey Milk during another turbulent time for this town: The 1970s. And nothing helps bring this vision to life more than the detailed costumes worn by each member of the fantastic ensemble cast. From Josh Brolin's traditional suiting to the flashy polyester getups worn by Diego Luna, the '70s never looked so good!

To check out the many photos of good-looking people in high-waisted jeans and such, just read more

James Franco joined Gus Van Sant and screenwriter Dustin Lance Black yesterday to pose for photos as they promote Milk in London. Their film doesn't open in the UK until next Friday, but the Brits seem to be loving it already. The movie just picked up multiple BAFTA nominations, including nods for Best Film and Best Original Screenplay. James and his cast mates skipped out on this year's Golden Globes, but with praise pouring in from many other directions, they have reason to be optimistic about next week's Oscar nominations.

Startraks Photo

The 2009 award season officially kicked off in NYC last night with some of the faces we'll be seeing a lot of over the next few months. Penelope Cruz and Sean Penn were among the winners at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards. Josh Brolin also won an acting award for Milk and shared the love with his costar on the red carpet. The acclaimed movie also won best picture at the awards. Whether or not we see the same winners at this weekend's Golden Globes, there will be surprises, touching moments and breathtaking fashion to take in. Don't forget to fill out the ballot to make the suspense even more fun when Sunday rolls around.

To see more from the awards including Gus Van Sant, Harvey Weinstein, Sigourney Weaver and others just read more

I was surprised at how much I ended up enjoying Four Christmases starring Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn, and maybe some of the early buzz from others who also liked it helped the holiday comedy win the Thanksgiving weekend box office this year with an estimated $46.7 million since opening Wednesday.

Meanwhile the highly anticipated Baz Luhrmann epic Australia opened at No. 5 after Quantum of Solace in fourth place, Twilight (which passed the $100 million mark this weekend) in third, and Bolt in second place. Gus Van Sant's biopic Milk also did very well for a limited release, coming in at No. 10 over the weekend.

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.

"I know that you cannot live on hope alone, but without it, life is not worth living." — Harvey Milk

The story of gay rights activist and politician Harvey Milk had a huge impact on me a few years ago when I first watched the Oscar-winning documentary about him, The Times of Harvey Milk. His is truly a stranger-than-fiction tale and is so full of inspiration, absurdity, and absolute heartache that it's somewhat surprising it has taken this long to create a feature-length dramatization of his life and death. I respect director Gus Van Sant's decision to memorialize and honor Harvey Milk with his movie Milk, and to my great relief, Van Sant and his exceptional ensemble cast have done Milk's story justice.

Milk picks up Harvey Milk's life when Milk (Sean Penn) meets one of the great loves of his life, Scott Smith (portrayed by James Franco) and decides to move from New York City to San Francisco. There, the two open a camera store in the heart of the Castro, a neighborhood with a rapidly growing gay population, and there Milk begins his life as a leader of the gay rights movement in the 1970s. After trying and failing twice, he is finally elected to San Francisco's Board of Supervisors in 1977, largely due to the support of the gay community. For the first time, it becomes apparent that the gay community could be a powerful one, and Milk often emphasizes this during his time in city hall. As the country's first openly gay man to be elected to public office, Milk brings the gay rights movement to the city's attention as much as possible, earning him admiration and support along with many enemies — including his ultimate enemy, fellow supervisor Dan White (Josh Brolin). For more about this and my thoughts on it all, read more

This is one of those headlines where you (kinda) know what the writer was trying to say, but you're all, "Re-write, re-write!" I mean, c'mon! "Sean Penn's Milk"?! That just sounds dirty. And "blast," following it just a couple words away, doesn't help. Anyway, if you're interested in reading about anti-gay rights crusader Anita Bryant and her reaction to the Gus Van Sant film Milk about the life of activist Harvey Milk, click here. Or you can just let your imagination run wild. It's your call.

The Milk premiere brought out Hollywood actors, political figures and the movie's real life inspirations in SF last night. Sean Penn walked the red carpet with Robin by his side but skipped chatting with reporters to greet fans. TR Knight and his boyfriend came to support the film along with the stars of the movie including Josh Brolin, Diego Luna, Alison Pill and happy to return to his home James Franco. Emile Hirsch talked on the red carpet about what made him want to get involved in Milk. He said,

"To me it’s just really an American story. It’s the quintessential principles, it’s what we stand for — equality, democracy, it’s these principles. The film tells the story in a very unlikely way, but it really is what it means to be an American. That’s why this really is the greatest country in the world."

Patriotic sounding Emile wasn't the only one ready to express enthusiasm, everyone else at the premiere from the actors, the historical figures and picketers for no on Prop 8 had a lot to say about the political atmosphere.

Many, many more images from the night so read more

As a piece of art, Gus Van Sant's Paranoid Park has a lot to recommend it. It's carefully told and beautifully rendered, and it establishes an instant mood of fearfulness and dread. Van Sant proved with Elephant, his 2003 film about a school shooting, that he knows how to tap into the creepiness of the everyday — dishes clanging in a sink, a light switching on in a far-away room — and Paranoid Park uses those haunting moments to their full effect. It's the sort of film I could see playing in a constant loop in the multimedia wing of a modern art museum.

As a commercial movie, though, Paranoid Park doesn't quite add up. With non-professional actors playing many of the roles, the film has an unusual authenticity — but it also has a distracting amateurish quality. And though it's just 85 minutes long, Paranoid Park still has too much space, with too much time spent on skateboarding shots and too little spent on teasing out the main character's emotions.

The film, adapted from author Blake Nelson's young-adult novel of the same name, focuses on Alex (Gabe Nevins), a high school skateboarder who finds himself drawn to the edgy crowd at a local skate park — the illegal, dangerous Paranoid Park — as his parents' marriage is falling apart and his girlfriend (Taylor Momsen of Gossip Girl) starts pressuring him to have sex. Told through flashbacks that follow the narration from a letter Alex is writing, the film focuses on the buildup to and aftermath of one traumatic event: the night that Alex accidentally kills a security guard and decides not to tell anyone. But that's just the plot, so to hear more of my take, just read more

There's something about the tone of director Gus Van Sant's work that gives me a deep uneasiness in the belly. His previous indie movie dealing with teens and violence, Elephant, won a bunch of awards at Cannes (including the Palm d'Or) in 2003 and it was certainly effective in delivering this dark queasiness I now feel again having watched the trailer for his newest film Paranoid Park.

Nominated for Best Feature and Best Director at this year's Independent Spirit Awards, Paranoid Park again focuses on troubled teenagers. This time there's a mystery involving a kid who dies on train tracks and another kid, a skater boy, who seems to be struggling with his role in the death. Also, Jenny from Gossip Girl is in it in what looks like a decidedly un-Jenny-ish role.

The movie has already screened at a variety of film festivals, and will open in limited release March 7. To check out the creepy trailer, read more