I’m not a big movie person, but when someone tells me there’s a movie where a grandma kicks ass, I’ll be there. And this movie, in its own sweet, goofy way, kicks ass.
“Thelma,” a lighthearted action comedy written, directed, and edited by Josh Margolin, follows the titular character, Thelma Post, as she gets scammed by someone posing as her grandson, escapes from her family’s careful (but, at times, overbearing) grasp to pursue her lost money, and begrudgingly recruits an old friend from a nursing home to help her regain both her agency and her money. In particular, it pays homage to Tom Cruise in “Top Gun,” including using an older Cruise’s scenes in “Top Gun: Maverick” as a motivational factor for Post pursuing her goal in the movie.
While the action part of the premise may sound lukewarm (how’s an action movie supposed to have gravitas if the protagonist is a nonagenarian?), the film is built on leaning into expectation and pushing it into hilarity. Your standard action comedy might have a character stumbling through a heist, sure — but are they equipped with the comedic gold that is a goodhearted grandmother slowly rolling onto a bed due to mobility issues in order to steal her friend’s gun? I think not.
The movie relies heavily on tropes for its comedy and its thoughtful, pensive moments are potentially easy to see coming, but everything is completely sold by June Squibb’s full embodiment of Thelma herself. As someone who once had a fragile but feisty Jewish grandmother, Thelma is a dead ringer for her archetype: sincere and blunt, full of mental spitfire withheld by physical unease, and adorably funny in the way only the elderly can be. Squibb, who is 94, also did most of her own stunts (a la Cruise), which is just one of the many reasons for her deserving her flowers with this film.
Beyond just Thelma herself, the dynamic between every character in the film is so real that it compels you to laugh out of understanding. From Thelma’s heartwarming bond with her awkward but caring grandson, Danny (depicted charmingly by Fred Hechinger) to her feuds with accomplice Ben (masterfully played by the late Richard Roundtree), all of Thelma’s relationships feel grounded and, as life often is, intimately funny. Even the characters and relationships beyond our protagonist — notably, Danny and his parents, Ben and the other residents in his nursing home, and the dull ache of Bunny Levine as the absentminded elderly Mona — are written with interactions that sting with intense familiarity.
My group of friends immediately after watching “Thelma”. You may note that we’re all in our twenties; however, the film resonated with us despite our decades of difference from the protagonist.
Most importantly, though, “Thelma” is a movie for the ages — for all ages, if you will. I caught the final showing of the movie at The Little Theatre on Aug. 28, where it’s been playing all summer since its release on June 21. According to Director of Communications Scott Pukos, he hasn’t seen a movie stick around for as long as “Thelma” has at The Little, and there’s a reason why — it has a heart that particularly resonates with demographics that may not always feel prioritized in the theater, such as the elderly.
When I was watching the movie, the audience had been politely rowdy, with people loudly guffawing and clapping their hands in delight at Thelma and the gang’s antics, which I initially attributed to the story just being that darn cute. However, as the lights came up in the theater on the Wednesday night showing I attended, it dawned on me. I was perhaps the youngest person in the room.
On exit, I weaved through groups of women that looked like my grandmother had; with breathing tubes and coke-bottle glasses, with knit cardigans and broad smiles. I complimented someone’s earrings to a “thank you, dearie” in response; I felt my eyes well up without warning.
There’s a beauty in being able to be brought together by a movie, and to feel at least a semblance of similarity to everyone else watching through the story being told on screen — at “Thelma,” the fear I’ve always had of aging beyond my “prime” melted into laughter. Getting old and losing some freedoms inherent to youth is terrifying, which the movie addresses in spades, but those fears — and what accompanies them — are okay to feel.
If Thelma Post and Tom Cruise can get through it, so can we.
