Connie and Carla (2004)

Connie (Nia Vardalos) and Carla (Toni Collette) are lifelong friends who share an obsession with musical theatre, but their careers are at a dead end. Despite this they continue performing with optimism, hosting a variety act at an airport lounge. After accidentally witnessing a mafia hit in Chicago, they go on the run, landing in LA. Initially working at a beauty salon, they wind up posing as drag queens and auditioning to host a drag review at a gay club.

Because they sing their own songs, rare for drag queens, they are hired, and their show becomes a hit. First it is called "What a Drag" then named "Connie and Carla and the Belles of the Balls" after they add a few friends to the act. Things are going smoothly and they vow not to let men interfere with their life. This creates a conflict when Connie falls for Jeff (Duchovny), the straight brother of Robert (Stephen Spinella), one of their drag queen friends. As the show gets bigger, they convince the club owner to convert it into a full dinner theater, and eventually their popularity threatens to expose them.

On the official opening night of the dinner theater, the mob killers catch up with them, but with the help of their drag queen friends, and to great applause from the audience (who think it is part of their act), Connie and Carla take them down. They confess their real identities to the audience and are accepted for who they are. Connie reveals herself to Jeff, who arrives after the chaos. He accepts her and becomes her lover.

This movie was filmed in Vancouver, Canada and features a number of local drag queens. The plot is unoriginal, but the lines and delivery are great--although some of the dialogue is saccharine. It has a well-written script with many very funny moments and touching scenes. It's fairly predictable, but enjoyable fun, warm, and very watchable. Randy Edelman composed the music score, Nia Vardalos wrote the screenplay, and Michael Lembeck directed.

Clueless (1995)

Cher Horowitz (Alicia Silverstone) is an attractive, popular, and rich 16 year-old who is at the top of the high school social scene and is happy and self-assured in her fashion-obsessed world. She lives in a Beverly Hills mansion with her father Mel (Dan Hedaya), a ferocious $500-an-hour litigator. Her mother is long dead, having succumbed to complications while undergoing liposuction. Cher's best friend is Dionne (Stacey Dash), who is also rich, pretty, and hip, and understands what it's like to be envied. Among the few people to find much fault with Cher is Josh (Paul Rudd), her intellectual ex-stepbrother who visits during a break from college. Josh and Cher argue continually but without malice. She refers to him as "granola breath" and mocks his altruistic idealism, while he teases her for being selfish, vain, and superficial, and says her only direction in life is "toward the mall".

This makes Cher want to prove that she has a social conscience. First, she plays matchmaker for two lonely, nerdy, hard-grading teachers, Mr. Wendell Hall (Wallace Shawn) and Miss Toby Geist (Twink Caplan). She achieves her original goal of making them relax their grading standards so she can renegotiate a bad report card. But when she sees their new-found happiness she realizes she likes doing good deeds. Cher now decides that the ultimate way she can give back to the community would be to "adopt" a "tragically unhip" new girl at school, Tai Frasier (Brittany Murphy). Cher and Dionne give Tai a makeover and make her popular. Cher also tries to extinguish the strong mutual attraction between Tai and Travis (Breckin Meyer), an amiable skateboarding slacker, and to steer her toward Elton (Jeremy Sisto), a rich snob.

Her second matchmaking scheme backfires when Elton rejects Tai and makes a play for Cher. Matters worsen, however, when Cher's "project" works a bit too well and Tai's popularity begins to surpass Cher's, especially after Tai has a "near-death" adventure at the mall that helps to skyrocket her to fame at school. Other classmates, including Dionne and Cher's longtime rival classmate Amber (Elisa Donovan), soon gravitate toward Tai, and Cher finds herself demoted from queen to princess at high school. Meanwhile, Cher has a couple of romantic problems with boys at school. The first involves Elton, and the next is Christian (Justin Walker), a handsome classmate with great fashion sense who turns out to be gay. Cher naively and repeatedly fails to understand Christian's hints that he is gay, and tries unsuccessfully to seduce him while they are alone one night watching "Spartacus". The next day, Dionne's boyfriend Murray (Donald Faison), roaring with laughter, makes her mistake clear to her at last.

Events reach a crisis after Cher fails her driver's test and can't "renegotiate" the result. When Cher goes home, crushed, Tai confides that she's taken a fancy to Josh and wants Cher to help her get him. Cher says she doesn't think Josh is right for her, and they quarrel. Cher, left all alone, begins to think she has created a monster in her own image. Feeling "totally clueless", she reflects on her priorities and her repeated failures to understand or appreciate the people in her life. Most of all, she keeps thinking about Josh and Tai, and wonders why she cares so much.

After much soul-searching and a shopping spree to many Beverly Hills boutiques, Cher falls in love with Josh. She begins making awkward but sincere efforts to live a more useful life, even captaining the school's Pismo Beach disaster relief effort. A scene near the end of the film finds Cher and Josh stumbling over how to admit their mutual feelings for each other, finally culminating in a tender kiss on the steps of her father's mansion. The film has a happy ending. Cher's two nerdy teachers at school get married, her friendships with Tai and Dionne are reaffirmed, and Tai and Travis are in love. And Cher, in Josh's arms, has found love and meaning in her life.

This smart, funny, sweet, romantic, and hip movie is a classic teenage film. There is no gross-out humor or slapstick, and in many ways it defines the generation it portrays. It spun off a TV show and a series of books. An update of Jane Austen's 1816 novel "Emma", it's gently satirical, with a big heart, bright colours, and intentionally funny product placements. David Kitay composed the music score, and Amy Heckerling ("Fast Times at Ridgemont High") scripted and directed.

Le Placard (2001)

François Pignon (Daniel Auteuil) is a divorced man who lives a very bland life with his 17 year-old son Franck (Stanislas Crevillén) who ignores him. When he learns he is going to be fired from his job as an accountant in a rubber factory, he contemplates suicide, but his neighbor Jean-Pierre Belone (Michel Aumont), a former psychologist prevents him from jumping from his balcony and suggests a way to keep his position. He proposes to start a rumor Pignon is homosexual by inserting his image in sexually provocative snapshots of a gay couple in a bar and anonymously mailing them to his boss. Because the factory's primary product is condoms, the gay community's support is essential, and his boss M. Kopel (Jean Rochefort) will be forced to keep Pignon on the payroll in order to be politically correct.

Pignon does not change his usual mild and self-effacing behavior and mannerisms in any way as part of his masquerade, but because his supervisors and co-workers begin to regard him in a new light, seeing him as exotic rather than dull, his life becomes unexpectedly and dramatically better. Félix Santini (Gérard Depardieu), a homophobic co-worker who used to harass him, is warned he could be fired for discrimination if he continues to belittle Pignon, so he becomes friendly.

The company enters a float in a local gay pride parade, and Pignon must ride on it. His divorced wife and son see him when the event is televised. The son is happy to learn his father, whom he always considered boring, has a wilder side, and expresses an interest in spending more time with him. His suspicious ex-wife Christine (Alexandra Vandernoot) invites Pignon to dinner and demands an explanation. He has by this point gained enough self-confidence to tell her exactly what he thinks of her.

Meanwhile, Santini's charade of friendship has developed into an obsessive attraction. His wife suspects him of having an affair when she finds a receipt for an expensive pink cashmere sweater, and leaves him when he buys Pignon chocolates. After this, Santini invites Pignon to move in with him. But when Pignon turns him down, Santini snaps, a fight ensues, and Santini is institutionalized to recover from his emotional breakdown. Eventually, Pignon's ruse is discovered when Kopel catches him making love in the office to co-worker Mme. Bertrand (Michèle Laroque). However, he has become so assertive he retains his position, relates to his son, patches up his relationship with Santini, and lives happily ever after.

This is an uplifting comedy about prejudice and how a Mr. Nobody becomes a somebody. It's light-hearted, not politically correct, old-fashioned, charming, delightful, and funny. Film critic Roger Ebert wrote: "The movie passes the time pleasantly and has a few good laughs ... But the screenplay relies too much on the first level of its premise and doesn't push into unexpected places. Once we get the setup, we can more or less anticipate the sitcom payoff, and there aren't the kinds of surprises, reversals and explosions of slapstick that made La Cage aux Folles so funny." Stephen Holden of the New York Times called it "giddy social comedy" and "a classic French farce" and added, "What's so liberating about The Closet is its refusal to walk on politically correct eggshells. The target of its blunt lusty humor is as much exaggerated political correctness and the panic it can engender as it is bigotry." Vladimir Cosma composed the music score. Francis Veber, who did La Cage aux Folles, wrote the screenplay and directed. In French with English subtitles. The English title is "The Closet".

And the Band Played On (1993)

This is the story of the discovery of the AIDS virus, from 1978 when numerous gays began dying from unknown causes, to the identification of the HIV virus. To reduce this to a reasonable-length feature, HBO pictures and writer Aaron Spelling devised a way of making it interesting for the small TV screen. They decided to follow the career of Dr. Don Francis, of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, and his team as they worked to uncover the mystery of the disease, and then had to fight to get public and official recognition of the problem.

In the prologue set in 1976, American epidemiologist Dr. Don Francis (Matthew Modine) arrives in a village on the banks of the Ebola River in the Congo and discovers many of the residents and the doctor working with them have died from a mysterious illness later identified as Ebola hemorrhagic fever. It is his first exposure to such an epidemic, and the images of the dead he helps cremate haunt him when he becomes involved with AIDS research at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In 1981, Francis becomes aware of a growing number of deaths from unexplained causes among gay men in Los Angeles, NYC, and San Francisco, and begins an investigation of the possible causes. Working with no money, limited space, and outdated equipment, he comes in contact with politicians and many members of the medical community--many of whom resent his involvement because of their personal agendas--and gay leaders, some of whom support him, while others resent what they see as interference in their lifestyles, especially his attempts to close the local bathhouses. While Francis pursues his theory that AIDS is caused by a sexually transmitted virus, he finds his efforts are stonewalled by the CDC, which is reluctant to prove the disease is transmitted through blood, and competing scientists who squabble about who should receive credit for discovering the virus. Meanwhile, the death toll climbs rapidly. The film ends with a montage of video clips and stills of prominent people who have died of AIDS.

This excellent and compelling made-for-TV film docudrama is notable for the number of big names that turned out for mostly small parts: Alan Alda, Lily Tomlin, Phil Collins, Richard Gere, Steve Martin, Anjelica Huston, and Ian McKellen. Many actors lent their support to this project as a public service, accepting only minimum union fees or no payment at all. The premiere was in Washington, D.C. before an audience which included members of Congress and government and industry leaders. Arnold Schulman adapted the teleplay from journalist Randy Shilts' best-selling 1987 book of the same title. Carter Burwell composed the music score, and Roger Spottiswoode directed.

Pillow Book (1997)

Nagiko (Vivian Wu), a Japanese born model living in Hong Kong, narrates this film. She wants a lover who can match her desire for sex with her love for poetry and calligraphy. The roots of this lie in her youth in Kyoto, when her father (Ken Ogata) would write characters of good fortune on her face. Nagiko's father celebrates her birthday retelling the Japanese creation myth and writing on her flesh in beautiful calligraphy, while her aunt (Hideko Yoshida) reads a list of "beautiful things" from Sei Shōnagon's "The Book of Observations". The aunt tells her that when she is 28 years old, the official book of observations will be 1000 years old, and that Nagiko will be the same age as Sei Shōnagon when she had written the book. Nagiko also learns around this time that her father is in love with his publisher Yaji-san (Yoshi Oida), who demands sexual favors from her father in exchange for publishing his work.

Frustrated by her inability to find a lover who is a good calligrapher, Nagiko finally meets a bi-sexual translator, Jerome (Ewan McGregor) who offers himself to her as a living surface for her erotic creativity. Inspired by the opportunity to obtain revenge on the publisher who blackmailed her father and is Jerome's lover, Nagiko creates the ultimate love poem illuminated in red, gold and black characters and delivered to the publisher on the naked body of Jerome. Eventually Jerome overdoses on pills and dies. After his funeral, the publisher exhumes Jerome's body and has Jerome's skin flayed and made into a grotesque pillow book of his own. Nagiko, now back in Japan, learns of the publisher's actions and becomes outraged. The publisher is confronted, hands the pillow book made of Jerome's skin to the messenger, then has the messenger slit his throat. Nagiko buries the book under a Bonsai tree and life goes on. She gives birth to Jerome's child (Hikari Abe), and is shown in the epilogue writing on her child's face, like her father used to do when she was young, and quoting from her own pillow book. It is Nagiko's 28th birthday.

This film, complete with a musical score as international as the languages used in the narration, is visually hypnotic and basically "art". There is nudity in the film, but it is very tastefully done and relevant to the plot. It's an exotic, difficult film but worth watching for lovers of unique movies. Peter Greenaway directed and wrote the script based on Sei Shōnagon's "The Pillow Book", the diary of a 10th-century lady-in-waiting.

Mannequin (1987)

Set in Wanamaker's department store in Philadelphia, Jonathan Switcher (Andrew McCarthy) is a struggling young artist who goes from one dead-end job to another. He just doesn't seem to last in any job he does. But when he builds a mannequin, he makes it so perfect it is the first thing he has made that makes him feel like a real artist. The mannequin ends up in the window of a big department store. When he saves the life of the old lady who owns the store, he is rewarded by getting a job as stock boy. Then he sees the mannequin (Kim Cattrall) he had created before. He goes to work at the store displaying her and meets a gay friend there named Hollywood Montrose (Meshach Taylor), while still managing a girlfriend, Roxie Shield (Carole Davis) from the competing department store, Ellustra. While having to dodge the store's vice president, who is working with Ellustra, and his stupid security guard, the mannequin comes to life. The mannequin, "Emmy," was actually once Emahasure, a real-life woman from ancient Egypt who lived in the year 2514 B.C. Her beauty and love inspire Switcher to become the best window dresser in town. Emmy and Jonathan have to cope with problems, including the fact that only Jonathan can see her when she is alive. Furthermore, in order to regain full status as a real life person, the mannequin must find true love.

However, when the other competing department store gets fewer customers due to the display windows done by Jonathan everything starts to change. First they try to persuade him through Roxie to work there, and when that fails the vice president and security guard decide to steal all the mannequins from the store, including Emmy. When Jonathan finds out she is gone he rescues her, and they both discover that because of their true love anything is possible, including a real live Emmy and a happy life together. The gay content comes from Montrose's caricature of a screaming gay black stereotype, a lisping, limp-wristed flamboyant window dresser.

"Mannequin" is a romantic comedy that is not very funny. But it was a surprise box-office hit, earning nearly 25 million dollars in just under a month of its release--amazing considering its tiny budget and lack of appeal to any particular demographic. It's an attempt to revive the style of fantasy romantic comedies of the 1930s and '40s. It has a poor script and there is actually a worse sequel "Mannequin 2" (1991). The film is an unacknowledged remake of the obscure 1948 film "One Touch of Venus", starring Robert Walker and Ava Gardner. Sylvester Levay composed the music score, and the script was written by Edward Rugoff and Michael Gottlieb, who also directed.

Execution of Justice (1999)

In November 1978, Dan White (Tim Daly ), a City Supervisor in San Francisco, shot and killed Mayor George Moscone (Stephen Young) and Harvey Milk (Peter Coyote), the first openly gay elected official in the country. White's lawyers presented what came to be known as the "Twinkie Defense," claiming their client had temporarily lost his sanity because of too much junk food. Despite what appeared to be a clear-cut case of first-degree murder, White was convicted only of voluntary manslaughter, and a riot erupted in the city. Released from prison only five years later, White brought closure to the case when he committed suicide.

Brief glimpses of White's past show how all-American he was. White was a policeman before he became a fireman like his father, married the daughter of a fireman, excelled at baseball, and so on. But we are also shown his darker side. His mother and his wife both urge him to seek psychological help for his moodiness, and Daly is not very subtle in showing us White's anger and frustration when struggling to pay his family's bills. This is a man who seems on the edge, and we don't see much of him from his own point of view, but mainly from that of his defense attorneys.

When White is elected to the Board of Supervisors, he seems to befriend Milk, only to feel betrayed when Milk votes for the opposite side of an issue. However, the filmmakers seem to ignore the obvious central conflict: Milk was a gay activist, whereas White was the Irish Catholic who felt San Francisco was going to the dogs. They are different individuals, but White's right-wing convictions are largely absent in the movie. As a result, he comes across as childish and stupid, smiling vacuously whenever someone asks him about anything substantial or political. It's one thing to portray White as a bad politician, but it's another to suggest that he shouldn't have graduated from public school. White ultimately remains a mysterious figure, and the film asks many questions without providing many answers. It keeps the viewer off balance, and gives the film a disturbing fascination.

This made-for-TV movie was filmed in Toronto and San Francisco by Daly/Harris Prods. and Paramount Network Television in association with Showtime. It is loosely based on Emily Mann's play "Execution of Justice", which was taken entirely from transcripts of Dan White's trial, plus the events and news clips that followed. It opened on Broadway on March 13, 1986, and the play has been performed in hundreds of regional theaters. The TV movie is very different, showing instead the lives of Dan White and Harvey Milk leading up to the murders. Sister Boom Boom (Khalil Kain) always fluttering around Milk is an anachronism, because Milk was killed before the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and Sister Boom Boom ever appeared in SF. It works as a dramatic device, but it's wrong in a film that is otherwise generally accurate about the facts. Also included is a 20 minute trailer of commentary and news-film footage of this story by the actual political leaders, police, and others whose lives were affected by the tragedy. Daniel Licht composed the music. Michael Butler wrote the teleplay derived from Emily Mann's play, and Leon Ichaso directed.

Gia (1998)

Seventeen year-old Gia Marie Carangi (Angelina Jolie) is a rebel in Philadelphia working in her father's diner. She moves to NYC and becomes a fashion model. Immediately she catches the attention of powerful agent Wilhelmina Cooper (Faye Dunaway). Gia had no intentions of becoming a model, she just becomes one--a supermodel on the cover of Vogue and Cosmopolitan. Her attitude, beauty, and willingness to pose nude help her rise quickly to the forefront of the modeling industry, but her chronic loneliness drives her to experiment with illicit drugs like cocaine. She becomes involved in a passionate lesbian affair with Linda (Elizabeth Mitchell), a make-up artist. However, after a while Linda begins to worry about Gia's drug use and gives her an ultimatum. She asks, "...this or me?" Gia chooses the drugs. Failed attempts at reconciliation with Linda and with her mother Kathleen Carangi (Mercedes Ruehl) drive Gia to begin using heroin. Although she is eventually able to break her drug habit after much effort, she has already contracted HIV from a needle containing infected blood and dies of complications from AIDS in 1986 at the age of 26.

Based on the real life of Gia Carangi, Angelina Jolie's unforgettable performance, a good story line, and above average casting make this made-for-TV HBO film well worth watching. Gia's tragic self-destruction is compelling but very sad. It's not really sensational, some scenes are laughable, and it's basically a cliche--a movie about a rebellious druggie who messes up her life. But it really happened. Both Jolie and Dunaway won Golden Globe awards for their performances. Terence Blanchard composed the music. The screenplay was written by Jay McInerney and Michael Cristofer, who also directed.

The Hours and Times (1991)

In 1963 John Lennon (Ian Hart) flies to Barcelona with the Beatles manager Brian Epstein (David Angus) for a weekend of relaxation. On the flight they meet stewardess Marianne (Stephanie Pack). Lennon flirts with her and gives her their hotel telephone number. He asks Epstein about gay sex and says he thinks about it sometimes, but believes it would be painful. They play cards and Epstein tells Lennon he is surprised that he mentioned it because the situation between them is hopeless. Lennon says that he finds Epstein charming but does not want to have sex with him, and is angry because everyone they know thinks they are having a sexual relationship. He goes to bed and receives a telephone call from his wife Cynthia. She says that she misses him, and Lennon says that he misses his son Julian.

Lennon and Epstein go to a gay bar and meet a Spaniard named Quinones (Robin McDonald), married but gay. He is invited back to the hotel where the three of them have drinks. After some friendly conversation he leaves early. Epstein is angry with Lennon, calls Quinones a fascist, and says that nothing matters because he can’t have the one thing he wants. He goes to bed and confides in Miguel (Sergio Moreno), the hotel boy. He asks Miguel for a blowjob but then says he is only joking. Later he talks to his mother (Unity Grimwood) on the telephone.

The pair look around Barcelona and Lennon takes photographs of Epstein. They discuss Lennon’s relationship with Cynthia, but he does not like talking to Brian about it. Lennon has a bath and plays the harmonica. Epstein enters, sits on the tub, and Lennon asks him to scrub his back, which Epstein starts doing. Lennon kisses Epstein, who undresses and gets into the bath. They kiss a little more, then Lennon abruptly gets out of the bath and leaves the room. Epstein finds him smoking in bed, and Lennon says he is not angry but can’t put into words what he is thinking. The telephone rings, it is Marianne, and Lennon tells her to come up. Epstein is angry, Marianne arrives, and Brian leaves. Marianne asks Lennon why Epstein is upset, and they argue. She says that she can see they care about each other but she thinks Lennon torments Epstein. They dance to a Little Richard record.

Lennon asks Epstein about his first time in Barcelona. Epstein says he was sent there by his mother a couple of years previously following an incident where he was robbed and blackmailed by a man he met for sex. Following the trial, he was forced to see a psychiatirst and his mother sent him to Spain. Two months later he met the Beatles. Epstein tries to get Lennon to promise to meet him in Barcelona in ten years, no matter what they are doing. He agrees to at least remember the arrangement. Later, Epstein lies awake in bed with Lennon sleeping next to him. He remembers a time when he took Lennon to his special place, the roof of his family’s store and told him how special the time they spent together was to him.

This indie film, shot in black and white, captures the intimacy and intensity of a friendship that would soon be diminished by Beatlemania. Controversial and provocative, it is a fine contribution to gay cinema. Ian Hart's resemblance to Lennon is so uncanny he went on to play John Lennon again in the film "Backbeat". It must be noted that the real John Lennon said, "It was never consummated. But we did have a pretty intense relationship." Christopher Munch scripted and directed.

Milk (2008)

"Milk" opens with archival footage of gay history that may shock many people. During the opening credits, a barrage of vintage film clips reminds us that only 50 years ago gay men, lesbians and transsexuals were subjected to violence, harassment, physical abuse, arrest and humiliation by those that citizens look to for protection: the police and judicial authorities. Using flashbacks from a statement recorded late in life and archival footage for atmosphere, this film traces Harvey Milk's career from his 40th birthday to his death.

Dianne Feinstein (Ashlee Temple) announces on November 27, 1978 that Supervisor Harvey Milk (Sean Penn) and Mayor George Moscone (Victor Garber) have been assassinated. Milk is seen recording his will throughout the film, nine days before the assassinations. The film then flashes back to NYC in 1970, the eve of Milk's 40th birthday and his first meeting with his much younger lover, Scott Smith (James Franco). Milk and Smith move to San Francisco hoping to find acceptance of their relationship. They open Castro Camera in the heart of Eureka Valley, a working class neighborhood evolving into a predominantly gay neighborhood known as The Castro. Frustrated by the opposition they encounter, Milk uses his background as a businessman to become a gay activist, eventually becoming a mentor for Cleve Jones (Emile Hirsch), the ex-street hustler who created the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial. Early on, Smith serves as Milk's campaign manager, but his frustration grows with Milk's devotion to politics, and he leaves him. Milk later meets Jack Lira (Diego Luna), a sweet but disturbed young man. Just like Smith, Lira cannot tolerate Milk's political activism, and eventually hangs himself.

After two unsuccessful political campaigns in 1973 and 1975 to become a City Supervisor and a third in 1976 for the California State Assembly, Milk finally wins a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977 for District 5. His victory makes him the first openly gay man to be elected into major public office in the US. Milk then meets fellow Supervisor Dan White (Josh Brolin), a Vietnam veteran and former police officer and firefighter. White, who is politically and socially conservative, has a difficult relationship with Milk, and grows resentful of the attention paid to Milk by the press and his colleagues.

White and Milk manage a working relationship. Milk attends the christening of White's first child, and White asks for Milk's assistance in preventing a psychiatric hospital from opening in his district, possibly in exchange for White's support of Milk's citywide gay rights ordinance. When Milk fails to support White, he feels betrayed, and he is the only one to vote against the gay rights ordinance. Milk also launches an effort to defeat Proposition 6, an initiative on the California state ballot in November 1978. Sponsored by John Briggs (Denis O'Hare), a conservative state legislator from Orange County, Proposition 6 seeks to ban gays, lesbians, and anyone who supports them from working in California's public schools. It is also part of a nationwide conservative movement that starts with the successful campaign headed by Anita Bryant and her organization "Save Our Children" in Dade County, Florida to repeal a local gay rights ordinance. On November 7, 1978, after working tirelessly against Proposition 6, Milk and his supporters rejoice in the wake of its defeat. The increasingly unstable White wants a Supervisor pay raise, but does not get much support, and shortly after supporting the Proposition, resigns from the Board. He later changes his mind and asks the city to rescind his decision. Mayor Moscone denies his request, after having been lobbied by Milk to do so.

On the morning of November 27, 1978, White enters San Francisco City Hall through a basement window in order to conceal a gun from metal detectors. He requests another meeting with Moscone, who rejects his request for re-appointment. Enraged, White shoots Moscone and then Milk. The film suggests that Milk believed that White might be a closeted gay man. "Milk" ends with an aerial shot of the candlelight vigil held by thousands for Harvey Milk and Mayor Moscone throughout the streets of the city.

Harvey Milk is now a gay icon. What he started lives on, so the movie ends on a hopeful note. Milk was a a frail human being, idealistic, funny, complex, tender, and gentle. He is the subject of Randy Shilts' biography "The Mayor of Castro Street", and the 1984 Oscar-winning documentary "The Times of Harvey Milk". This near-perfect motion picture makes its point without ever being preachy, while remaining true and accurate regarding the historical and biographical facts. It received 8 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, winning two for Best Actor in a Leading Role for Sean Penn and Best Original Screenplay for Dustin Lance Black. Danny Elfman composed the music score, and Gus Van Sant directed.