Gran Torino

I'm not even going to bother calling this a review.  I just wanted to (very belatedly) express my love for Gran Torino.  Seriously, it was great.  It's safe to say that it's my favorite movie so far this year, and that even if it came out last year it would still have been in my top 10. 

The film is all about a grizzlied, lonely, old-fashioned and blatantly racist Korean War veteran who retires to Michigan and is perturbed by the number of minorities that have moved into his old neighborhood, including his next-door neighbors of Hmong descent.  He has several run-ins with a variety of demographic representatives, but soon becomes drawn into the goings-on of the neighborhood Hmong refugees in an escalating, dangerous way.

This is one of those movies where you'll either find yourself laughing a lot, or you will walk out of because you are so offended.  There really isn't much in between.  I had no idea how funny it would be -- and I had no idea how many Asian racial slurs existed before seeing this movie.  It is the perfect role at the perfect time in Eastwood's career, and serves as a sort of retrospective.  Even though it seems like a PSA at times, I highly recommend seeing it.

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