June Squibb shines in her first starring role as Thelma Post, a feisty 93-year-old grandmother who gets caught up in a phone con and is scammed out of $10,000. Determined not to let the con artist win, she sets out on a treacherous quest across Los Angeles - accompanied by an aging friend, Ben, and his motorized scooter - to reclaim what was taken from her.
Inspired by a real-life experience of debut director Josh Margolin’s own highly spirited grandmother, Thelma shines the spotlight on an elderly lady as an unlikely action hero with humour and an emotional undercurrent. Employing a lot of the familiar tropes of the action genre, Thelma tackles aging with both agency and hilarity.
Writer-director Josh Margolin ingeniously tweaks action- and crime-movie clichés to tell this rather quaint little story. But Thelma is not overly saturated in reference-y irony. It’s sincere and sensitive.