4 stars = Outstanding
Ratings explained

Clint Eastwood the director has been on a roll for nearly a decade, turning out Oscar-worthy films with the frequency and consistency of a fast-food franchise packaging burgers and fries. Clint Eastwood the actor has been turning out Oscar-caliber performances since "Unforgiven," reminding us that there was a whole lot of acting talent behind that scowl of his.

Eastwood's films of late have been laconic and meditative. They're usually about obsessed men (and sometimes women) who find themselves in uniquely American dilemmas. "Gran Torino" is Eastwood's latest entry into a genre of filmmaking he has helped define.

Walt Kowalski (Eastwood) is a retired auto worker whose wife has recently died, leaving him all alone to deal with the uncomfortable reality of a once-proud working-class Detroit neighborhood on the skids. Walt doesn't like his children or grandchildren and they return the sentiment. When a Hmong family moves in next door, Walt doesn't like it one bit. As a Korean War vet, he's irrationally suspicious of Asians.

After a series of misunderstandings, cultural gestures and even the attempted theft of his prized 1972 Gran Torino, Walt befriends his shy young neighbor Thao (Bee Vang) and his tough older sister Sue (Ahney Her). Walt teaches Thao "how to be a man" American-style after the boy's family forces him to become an indentured servant to work off the moral debt of trying to steal Walt's car. Thao's cousin Spider (Doua Moua), a Hmong gang leader, is embarrassed by his passivity. Spider and his crew are on a collision course with Walt that ends in a way one sees coming.

"Gran Torino" is a complex film that tells the story in a deceptively simple way. Eastwood has become the master of understated, but elegant filmmaking.

The DVD contains two relatively light features about American car culture: "Gran Torino: More than a Car" and "Manning the Wheel: The Meaning of Manhood as Reflected in American Car Culture." Both feature interviews with the cast and crew waxing poetically about their first cars and what it meant. The extra features are far more sentimental than the movie itself.