At once a celebration and playful subversion of the action genre and a soulful exploration of aging and autonomy, Sundance hit Thelma is a showcase for our oldest generation, those rarely centered in life let alone on-screen. When 93-year-old Thelma Post (June Squibb) gets duped by a phone scammer pretending to be her grandson, she sets out on a treacherous quest across the city, with the help of her good friend Ben (the late Richard Roundtree) to reclaim what she lost. The path to the perpetrator is anything but straight as Thelma must make an important stop or two and she encounters complications along the way. For first-time feature writer/director Josh Margolin, the film serves as a love letter to the exploits of his real-life grandmother. And after 70+ years of acting (perhaps most memorably as the henpecking wife in Nebraska) Thelma gives June Squibb, in a memorable performance, her first starring role to become the year’s oldest action hero.
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