Thelma (2023 | USA | 96 minutes | Josh Margolin)
This caper starring June Squibb as a 93-year-old granny on a Tom Cruise-inspired impossible mission to avenge her honor after being scammed out of $10,000 cash may have been Most Sundance Movie of the fest this January. It’s impeccably made, note-perfect, and heartwarming. A complete and utter delight from start to finish, I can’t remember the last time I’ve laughed as much as I did during this sweet little inspired-by-true-life comedy.
Fred Hechinger (recently-ish of The White Lotus fame) co-stars as an underemployed Grandson of the Year candidate. He’s somewhat fresh off a break-up, perpetually bad at quantitative skills, and unable to schedule basic administrative functions for himself. What he is great at, though, is checking in on his recently-widowed grandmother in her Los Angeles condo. He keeps her company during his visits, and patiently coaches her through the finer points of operating her computer (including advanced skills in eradicating pop-up windows). Each time he leaves, he pleads with her to wear a Medic-Alert style bracelet for his own sanity, a request that she obliges only until he’s pulled out of the driveway.
Her character’s living on her own for the first time in her whole life and she’s doing a fairly good job, but there have been some slip-ups here and there (shout-out to those still mourning the demise of Soup Plantation). Her family worries, both for her safety and for what they might have to do and where she might have to live when she can’t take care of herself. It’s a fate that’s befallen the majority of her surviving friends, but one she is steadfastly determined to avoid.
The action kicks off with a deepfake phone call (and none of her family answering their phones when she calls for help). The scam sends her — and her money — out of the house and on a mission. Although nothing too bad happens, she just can’t countenance being parted from her cash, partly out of offense for injustice, but mainly out of a fear that this is the beginning of the end of her independence. Inspired by the ancient visage of Tom Cruise in her morning paper making yet another action movie at his advanced age (somehow he approved these references!), she sets off to take matters into her own hands.
Of course, June Squibb is a total star who holds every frame with clever wit and fierce determination even though it’s her first starring role. She’s complemented by hilarious performances up and down the cast. Parker Posey and Clark Gregg play adoring helicopter parents to their adult son with perfect banter and modern sensitivities. As the score-settling plan unfolds with the requisite shuffling steps of assembling a team and staking out the perp, this wonderful film makes room for the great Richard Rountree to shine in one last great action role. It’s smartly written with heart-swelling sentiment and staged with brilliantly shot age-appropriate action sequences. On a pure enjoyment level — laughs, tears, thrills — there’s nothing at the festival I enjoyed more.
Original version of this review ran when Thelma played as an official selection of the Premieres Program at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. After opening SIFF, it is now in wide release.