Word: gran
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...etched in stone - Mickey Rourke as the comeback kid, Slumdog Millionaire as the art-house wunderkind, Milk as the timely social commentary (released three weeks after Proposition 8 passed in California). Yet while the critics have been fussing over wrestlers and Mumbai quiz shows, audiences have been flocking to Gran Torino - an Oscar outcast that's been doing laps around the competition at the box office. At some point this week, the Clint Eastwood drama will pass the $100 million mark, easily surpassing the box-office receipts brought in by not only some of the Oscar front-runners (Slumdog Millionaire...
...shame that she was made a Best Actress finalist for her work as the desperate mother in Changeling, a performance so miscalibrated that it yanks the story out of its period whenever she's on screen. (Changeling, directed by Clint Eastwood, took three nominations; Eastwood's much superior Gran Torino, none.) It would have made far more sense, though obviously not to the Academy, if she'd been cited as the succulent succubus of the comic-book film Wanted - a true demonstration of star quality.
...around, there's a sense of pop culture trying to feel its way toward the next thing, the new tone, whatever it might be. On 24, Jack Bauer is getting philosophical about torture. American Idol is trying to be nicer to its bad singers. Even Clint Eastwood's hit Gran Torino--in which a racist retiree snarls at Asian gang bangers to "get off my lawn" as he protects a young Hmong neighbor--is ultimately not the reactionary return of Dirty Harry but the 20th century grouchily giving way to the 21st...
...continued the pooch pash established by Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Bolt and Marley & Me; and the Kevin James comedy Paul Blart, Mall Cop doubled industry predictions to take in a Walmart-worthy $39 million. The old man did O.K. too: in its second week of wide release, Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino did $26.2 million, for a take so far of $77 million...
...Mary Pols covered Hotel for Dogs last week, and I've written about Gran Torino. From my busman's holiday, here are a few notes on the other three top films...