I have come to a new life’s goal after seeing Gran Torino: I want to be (the female version of) Clint Eastwood’s character, Walt Kowalski, when I grow old.

He’s the unapologetic jerk who hates the kids today, his family, whom he feels disconnected from, and the entire human population. He chain-smokes and drinks beer on his front porch with his dog. (He’s also a complete racist, not something I wanted to adopt, just so we’re clear.)

The most important characteristic is, he’s an amalgamation of Clint Eastwood’s characters from over the years, just transported to a crappy neighborhood in our time. Considering the movie culminates in a stand-off between Kowalski and a Hmong gang in a front yard that could have easily been transported into A Fistful of Dollars with a few casting changes, I think Eastwood may have been channeling his mythic self, if that being ever actually uttered the phrase, “Get off my lawn!” He’s the cowboy come back to claim the ghetto, so to speak.

Thankfully, the movie avoids most other clichés that could have ensnared it. Kowalski’s relationship with the Hmong family who live next door certainly starts off surly and moves to sweet, but thankfully it wasn’t through the plucky Sue (Ahney Her). It’s instead through her brother Thao, who tries to steal Kawalski’s prized, mint-condition 1972 Gran Torino.

I say the movie avoids most other clichés because Kowalski’s actual family is full of clichés. His granddaughter is a snotty brat who shows her midriff during his wife’s funeral, and his children insult him by buying him large button phones and suggesting that he be moved into a home. It’s been done before, but it’s saved by two things: the hilarious dialogue, and Eastwood’s spot-on expression and old-man growls when confronted with these people.

The movie is funny most of the way through—thanks largely to dialogue you’ll probably (because of political correctness) feel guilty about laughing at later. But when it becomes serious it hits you like a sucker punch. The message isn’t clouded by the humor though, and unlike Eastwood’s other recent directorial stints, it doesn’t completely lose you in the heartbreak of the situation either.

This movie deserves the Golden Globe nods, and I can foresee Eastwood getting another Oscar nomination or two in the next month for his aging cowboy story.

— Chelsea Stark