Eastwood hits the gas

In theaters Friday: Changeling (limited), The Haunting of Molly Hartley, Rocknrolla (limited)

New on DVD: Journey to the Center of the Earth

Nobody can say Clint Eastwood has slowed down in his golden years. The man is on fire. The first trailer for Gran Torino is online now, and other than one cheesy line of dialogue, it looks fantastic. If you miss the Dirty Harry movies or really loved Michael Douglas in Falling Down, you’ll want to watch this trailer. It is great to see Eastwood back in a starring role after years of focusing on directing, especially with a new character that is like a combination of the outlaw Josey Wales and Archie Bunker, an embittered hard ass who doesn’t take guff from nobody. That’s the kind of Eastwood I can get on board with, plus Ford Gran Torinos are just plain cool.

But before Gran Torino roars into theaters this December, Eastwood’s new directorial effort, Changeling, arrives in a limited release. Early reviews have been mixed, but I really hope this makes its way to Baton Rouge before long. Cinemark at Perkins Rowe has been getting a few of the lesser-known indie pictures, so there is hope. The 1920s period piece is based on a true story about a man who abused and killed several young boys on a rural chicken farm near Los Angeles. Angelina Jolie stars as a grieving mother of one of those lost boys. But when authorities return a child to her that isn’t her own she is pressured to accept the boy as her son. She carries the film the way she did A Mighty Heart, but gets good support from John Malkovich as a local reverend wanting to expose corruption in the LAPD, and Gone Baby Gone’s Amy Ryan as a psych-ward patient. Look for Changeling as a dark horse at the Oscars this coming awards season.

With the recent passing of Paul Newman, Clint Eastwood is one of the last remaining stellar actors from the 1960s and ’70s, performers who were tried and true American men, rough around the edges but solid like rocks. While Newman spent his last decade in semi-retirement, Eastwood, 78, seems to be gaining momentum. Next year’s The Human Factor, his Nelson Mandela biopic, could be his crowning achievement as a director. That film stars Morgan Freeman as Mandela and Matt Damon as South African rugby star Francois Pienaar and is in pre-production now.