The Mayor of Castro Street finally gets his Hollywood close-up

Every biopic is saddled with the oxymoronic task of surprising audiences with a story they already know. This problem is particularly acute with Milk, Gun Van Sant’s long-gestating film biography of slain gay rights pioneer Harvey Milk, whose story has not only been documented in news [...]

In Into the Wild, Sean Penn transforms a crackpot into a martyr

To recapitulate: In 1990, a young man named Christopher McCandless graduated from Emory University, gave his life savings to OXFAM, burned his cash, cut ties with everyone he knew, changed his name to Alexander Supertramp, and wandered the country, living a fantasy of Emersonian [...]