n a film he directed, Sean Penn (The Indian Runner, The Crossing Guard) picked a fine time to put himself in front of the camera for the first time. Flag Day is just Penn’s sixth directing effort and only his second since 2007’s Into the Wild, which he has openly admitted is the pinnacle of his Hollywood career. That is a crazy thing for someone who had won an Oscar for Best Actor just a few years prior (Mystic River) and again a year later (Milk). In an interview promoting Flag Day, I read that Penn had written two books and would have continued to write more had they had the same success. However, with those novels faltering, perhaps he felt directing gave Penn more autonomy than directing and that this is how he wanted his accomplishments to be with his work behind the lens rather than in front of it.