Bear in Mind: The Berlin Film Festival 2009

Milk

writer Dustin Lance Black, director Gus Van Sant, and producers
Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen were in town for their film's
festival screening and a press conference, during which
international journalists asked about their views on President
Obama (Van Sant: "It seems like he's doing a pretty good
job"), the pope (Black: "I've heard he has some problems
with me -- maybe we can patch it up if we ever get
together"), and the film's use of stock footage of Anita
Bryant versus having an actress portray her. "Unlike Dan
White," Black responded to the latter question, "who I
found it easier and important to find the humanity in, the more
I looked into Anita the more she seemed like caricature. I was
afraid people today would not believe she said and meant the
things she did, so to have an actress portray that would seem
like caricature and I would seem like a really bad writer ...
so I thought,
We'll let her sink her own ship.

"

As usual, there was
plenty of star-hungry crowd clamor around the festival's ground
zero, Potsdamer Platz, and handful of satellite theaters. Harry
Potter fans from around the world flew in to catch Rupert
Grint's very adult turn in
Cherrybomb, a

n
Y Tu Mamá También

-esque drama about two boys into the same girl, it falls short
of that film's homoerotic edge -- although at one point,
teasingly, it seems like it might actually go there -- and
Grint doesn't go full monty a la Radcliffe in
Equus

. Ultimately,
Cherrybomb

plays like a good episode of BBC series
Skins.