‘Thelma’ Introduces the World to June Squibb, Action Hero!
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When you get to be an actor of a certain age, you have the option of a lucrative career pivot into action movies. Just ask Liam Neeson, or Denzel Washington, or any of the other A-listers who’ve reinvented themselves as late-act ass-kickers. We’ll confess that we did not have June Squibb on our Geri-Action Bingo Card — after several decades treading the boards in the New York theater scene, the 94-year-old actor had carved out a nice little niche for herself as an Every-Gran who stole scenes and secured herself an Oscar nomination (for Alexander Payne’s Nebraska) in her eighties.
With writer-director Josh Margolin’s Thelma, however, Squibb joins the ranks of the Stallones and Schwarzeneggers who lit up screens with gunfire, stunts, and quips. It’s all done in her own deliberate, age-appropriate manner, but still. You won’t see the title character engage in Krav Maga with a gang of thugs or sprint across rooftops in Marrakesh (we’re assuming they’re saving that for the sequel). But you will witness Squibb step into the spotlight of leading what is technically an action movie and totally own it. Thelma will bake you cookies and show you her needlepoint. But this is one old lady you do not want to fuck with.
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That’s the movie’s main selling point, as well as it’s potential ceiling; the fear is that Margolin’s idea of dropping a nonagenarian into a revenge thriller, complete with variations on everything you’d more or less expect from that genre, begins and ends with that logline. It’s largely thanks to Squibb and her co-star, the late, great Richard Roundtree, that this tale of an elderly woman looking for payback doesn’t devolve into a cheap, one-note novelty. A doting grandmother and a still-grieving widow, Thelma spends her days puttering around the house and hanging with her aimless, twentysomething grandson, Daniel (The White Lotus‘ Fred Hechinger). She’s tech-savvy enough to know how to hook up her hearing aid to her smartphone via Bluetooth, but things like the internet, email, and computers in general confound her.
And Thelma isn’t up on the latest scams, which makes her the perfect target for some no-goodniks ready to bilk her out of a retirement nest egg. She answers a call from a young man claiming to be Daniel, who tells her he’s been in an accident and is in police custody. A second caller says he’s the young man’s attorney and tells her that she needs to mail $10,000 in cash to an address ASAP. Frantic, Thelma gathers the amount, heads to the post office and calls Daniel’s mom and dad (Parker Posey and Clark Gregg, doing wonderful imitations of parents that are somehow overprotective and completely checked out). By the time they finally reach Daniel — who’s been perfectly fine this whole time — Thelma has mailed the cash out. The cops say there’s nothing they can do. Her family wonders if it’s time to put her in assisted living. Grandma has other ideas. She wants to get even.
So she does what anyone in her situation would do, which is visit her old friend Ben (Roundtree), steal his souped-up mobility scooter — after he pursues her on another scooter, she enlists him for her mission — stop by their old friend’s house to “borrow” a gun, and stake out the P.O. box pickup spot. Meanwhile, Daniel and his folks are driving all over Los Angeles to find this M.I.A. biddy, which becomes near impossible once Thelma cannily ditches her life-alert bracelet. Once they issue a Silver Alert for her, Thelma’s quest for vengeance is likely a no-go. The clock is ticking.
What follows is something that continually comes close to being an outright parody of an action flick, albeit one tailored to a star who has long embraced her post-spring-chicken status. Thelma gets the chance to fire some warning shots and engage in a “high-speed” chase (those scooters only go so fast) while a Lalo Schifrin-style score plays over the soundtrack. The fact that Roundtree, who’s truly wonderful in his final role and makes for a great screen partner with Squibb, is 81 years old here doesn’t take away the fact that Thelma is cruising for criminals with no less than John Freakin’ Shaft, who’s still one bad mother-[June Squibb voice: “Shut your mouth, young man!”]. The usual bit involving the hero treading into dangerous territory and their handler issuing remote orders is done via hearing aid. The typical scene of a tech expert guiding someone to classified info subs in ixnaying annoying pop-up ads for firewall breaches. When we meet the film’s megalomaniacal villain — hint: he’s a fan of the ol’ Ludwig Van — Thelma disarms him by pinching his oxygen tank tube.
By the time Squibb and Roundtree get to do their version of casually walking away from a fireball explosion, because of course they do, Thelma has made good on its proof-of-concept. And while the movie’s points about society disrespecting its elders sometimes get heavily hammered home — maybe setting your evil genius’s lair inside an antique store is a bit too on the nose? — the message is nonetheless received loud and clear. Margolin said he based this character on his own grandmother, who lived into her 100s and was as tenacious and steadfast as they come. By all accounts, she did not let her autumn years slow her to a full stop. Squibb isn’t just doing justice to this screen representation of the filmmaker’s relative. She’s proving that she’s a kindred spirit. Thanks to her, the movie’s notion of casting aside ageist preconceptions takes on a highly meta sense of significance. Even if this Squibb’s only foray into action films, the star has proven she’s game for the challenge. But should she be open to other, more similar opportunities, we do hear they’re looking to cast a new James Bond….
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