With the film festival now in full swing at the Dietrich Theater, I wanted to take a look at another prior film festival selection that I didn’t get a chance to check out - the indie film “Thelma”.
Thelma Post is a 93 year old grandmother who loses $10,000 to a con artist on the phone.
With help from a friend and his motorized scooter, she soon embarks on a treacherous journey across Los Angeles to reclaim what was taken from her.
This 2024 indie film does an amazing job showing us that the talented June Squibb has what it takes to carry this film - and, at the age of 95, this was Squibb’s first leading role! The actress has appeared in quite a few films over the years, such as “Scent of a Woman,” “About Schmidt,” “Nebraska,” among many others.
Squibb’s character (Thelma) delivers some fun entertaining moments that can easily give you a good chuckle. The 95 year old actress gives a performance that is very memorable and she does an astounding job anchoring the film with both warmth and the previously mentioned humor. There are a couple scenes that she shares with the late Richard Roundtree (a.k.a. Shaft) where their comedic timing was perfect and they just absolutely killed it in most of their scenes together.
There are also a few moments scattered throughout the film that can give it a bit of action and is sort of shot like the early “Mission: Impossible” movies. There’s a scene
where Thelma steals her friend's scooter and her friend (Ben) ends up chasing after her with another scooter, and this scene is simply hilarious since its the exact opposite of a typical high speed chase.
“Thelma” also delivers a bit of heart as well. In the film, we are also introduced to her grandson, Danny, who takes good care of his grandmother and loves her. There’s a pivotal moment where Danny is having an argument with his parents and he vents about everything he has done wrong lately and is how he’s lacking in some skills - which is probably his best moment in the film.
Overall, “Thelma” is a little comedy, mixed in with a little bit of action that will really surprise you. This film also puts a clever spin on action-related films by featuring a grandmother as an unlikely hero. If you haven’t seen the film yet, I highly recommend it!
Cast: June Squibb (Thelma); Frank Hechinger (Danny); Richard Roundtree (Ben); Parker Posey (Gail); Clark Gregg (Alan); Nicole Byer (Rochelle); Coral Pena (Allie); Aidan Fiske (Michael); Malcolm McDowell (Harvey)
Writer/director: Josh Margolin
Trivia: The film is actually inspired by Josh Margolin’s 103 year old grandmother, who was almost duped by scammers pretending to be her grandson into giving them thousands of dollars. “Thelma” also marks Roundtree’s final film role before his passing in October 2023.
“Thelma” premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival on January 18, 2024. It was also named one of the top ten independent films of 2024 by the National Board of Review.
MPAA: PG-13 for strong language (running time 98 minutes)
Where to find the movie? You can currently stream “Thelma” on Hulu/Disney Plus or rent it via Fandango, YouTube, Amazon Prime and Apple TV.
Inspired by Josh Margolin's 103-year-old grandma named Thelma, who was almost duped by scammers pretending to be her grandson into giving them thousands of dollars.
June Squibb's first starring film role in her decades-spanning career.
Richard Roundtree's final film role before his passing in October 2023, three months before the film's world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.
The character of Thelma Post is based on director Josh Margolin's grandmother, also named Thelma Post. The real-life Thelma was married to film and TV director Ted Post, director of Hang 'Em High (1968), Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970), and Magnum Force (1973). Ted Post is seen in the film Thelma in photos as Thelma's deceased husband.
The movie Thelma is an affectionate parody of the action movie genre in general and the Mission Impossible movies in particular. In a June 2024 interview with Ryan Lattanzio of Indiewire, Josh Margolin explained the process of obtaining Tom Cruise's permission to include his likeness and clips of his Mission Impossible series in the movie: "He's been very busy, so I'm not sure if he's seen it, but I would be very excited for him to watch it if he does. I already feel very grateful that he signed off and let us use the footage. We were advised to kind of just go straight to Tom and give it a whirl and he very generously was "thumbs up." ["Mission: Impossible"] is such a central thread [in "Thelma"]. Obviously, it's not exactly the plot, but thematically, it's very woven in, so it was really nice to be able to just have that in there for what it signifies."
The casting of Richard Roundtree (Ben) and Malcolm McDowell (Harvey) means that two main male characters in this movie are played by actors who both had their career-defining roles as antiheroes in 1971 movies: Roundtree as the title character in Shaft and McDowell as Alex in A Clockwork Orange. June Squibb did not have a role in a theatrically released feature film until nearly two decades later (when she appeared in 1990's Alice), though she had a robust stage career stretching back into the 1950s (including in the original Broadway production of the classic musical Gypsy).
Comments