Thelma (2024)

Thelma (Squibb) is a 93 year old woman that lives a quiet life alone, dealing with the typical technological handicap most would assume of someone that age. Her day turns upside-down when a scammer calls her, pretending to be her 24 year old grandson, Danny (Hechinger), and demanding 10k cash. Danny, along with Thelma’s daughter, Gail (Posey), and son-in-law, Alan (Gregg), comfort her as she wrestles with the aftermath of the scam and the discussion of her moving to a nursing home.

In an act of defiance, Thelma takes it upon herself to get the money back. She enlists one of her remaining friends, Ben (Roundtree), to assist her in the mission. The film unfolds in a pseudo action thriller with Thelma taking the role of Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt, as she absconds in a scooter, evades pursuers with a misdirected tracking device, steals a gun, and attempts to hack into a bank account to retrieve her funds. Thelma portrays a comedic action film through the lens of an elderly, yet spunky, woman struggling with trying to understand how to live out the remaining years of her life.

Geri-Action Scenes

One of the most noteworthy aspects of this film are the ways that action sequences are driven by innocuous actions. A traditional action film might present Tom Cruise dangling off the side of an airplane or a car chase scene ending in a cataclysmic explosion. Thelma puts a fun spin on this concept.

The characters enter their own harrowing adventure. One that doesn’t involve mid flight airplane reconnaissance, however, it does involve deceit, pushing physical limits, and breaking boundaries. All of these boundaries and death defying acts are simply framed around the age of the protagonist and her accomplices.

Thelma places these characters is situations that have them climb up on a bed to retrieve a pistol from a bookshelf or race against time as they navigate a pop up ad (see clip below).

This set up and theme, found throughout the film, are what make Thelma a fresh and hilarious film.

Josh Margolin

Josh Margolin told an incredible story about getting old and the fear of losing who you are. He wrote, directed, and edited the film about his grandma and you can feel the passion behind his project.

It is hard to reconcile the loss of what you once were as you approach the end of what you ever were. A life’s story is one full of ups, downs, triumph’s, regret’s, and everything in between. No life is worthless, meaningless, or not important. Margolin reminds us that life is finite and you get to write your story until the end.

Roundtree RIP

There were a couple of legendary actors in Thelma, Richard Roundtree and Malcolm McDowell. Richard Roundtree’s career primarily surrounded his characters in Shaft and Roots. Shaft was an early film for Roundtree and an important film in the blaxploitation period. Shaft is known as a standard of heroism in a history of unfortunate portrayal of young black men in film. It was both amazing to see Roundtree in this film, accompanying Squibb as the sidequick as it was unfortunate to see that he had passed before it’s release.

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Directed by: Josh Margolin

Cinematography: David Bolen

Written by: Josh Margolin

Editing By: Josh Margolin

Starring: June Squibb, Fred Hechinger, Richard Roundtree, Parker Posey, Clark Gregg, & Malcolm McDowell.

Runtime: 1h 38m

Genre: Action, Comedy

Distributed by: Magnolia Pictures

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