Penn is so well-tuned that not for a minute does his Milk lapse into a caricature.

Milk is fortuitously, if inevitably, a movie of its moment.

Penn may be the main attraction, but this is very much an ensemble piece. Emile Hirsch, as cheeky street kid turned activist Cleve Jones, Diego Luna as Milk's annoyingly needy, unstable second lover and James Franco's Scott, add to the communal spirit.

"Milk" stands as a testament to the collective power of a community that stands up and fights for what’s right, to the unending fight of grassroots activists who give everything for a movement larger than themselves.