June Squibb is 94 years old and she killed it in Thélma (now streaming on Hulu), a gentle, AARP parody of action-revenge genre pictures. You probably recognize Squibb as the scene-stealer in 2013’s. Nebraskawhich earned him a well-deserved Oscar nomination. So it’s inspiring for anyone who’s getting a little gray and hasn’t yet realized their dream to learn that she’s essentially reached the pinnacle of her profession at 84 years old. Even crazier, she did it. She didn’t appear in a film until she was 60 (with a role in Woody Allen’s 1990 film). Alice), after honing her acting skills on stage for most of her career. Even then, she only played supporting roles, so I’m excited to share that her first star turn, Thélmais very pleasant.

THELMA: Stream it or ignore it?

The bottom line: You probably know this scene: An elderly person struggling with computers and ask a younger person for help with scrolling, emails, etc. This is Thelma (Squibb) from her grandson Daniel (Fred Hechinger). She eventually comes out of it and Daniel’s patient, representative of their loving and affectionate relationship. He begs her to wear a medical alert bracelet, and she agrees. Not that she wants to, mind you. She does it because he » asked, and you get the feeling she probably wouldn’t do it any other way. It’s a stupid, bulky, ugly thing on his wrist, representing his growing lack of independence, a yucky feeling many older people have to deal with as their bodies slow down. She has been a widow for two years now and lives alone in her own house. Daniel wants her to carry it if she ever falls. She would just rather not think about falling.

Thelma goes about her days as you would expect of a 90-year-old woman with a mobility problem or two: breakfast, a few exercises on the mini elliptical, doing a little cross-stitching, drinking around the house , connect your hearing aids to your phone and make a few calls, etc. She doesn’t drive anymore. She had lunch with different groups of friends, but many of them are now deceased. There’s this widower who calls her and offers to take her for a ride on his new scooter, but she rolls her eyes. Then his phone rings: UNKNOWN CALLER. A young voice on the other end of the line identifies himself as Daniel. This isn’t really like him but he freaks out and says he’s in trouble and she’s about to get a call from a lawyer and when she talks to the lawyer he convinces her to put down a retainer $10,000 cash in an envelope and mail it to him to keep Daniel out of this deep mess. And she goes to great lengths to follow his instructions.

We know it’s bad. Thelma has just been fooled by scammers who deserve to have their extremities chewed off by voracious eels. The truth quickly becomes apparent: Daniel was just at home, doing nothing he usually does, much to the dismay of his parents, Gail (Parker Posey) and Alan (Clark Gregg), who take a hard look at their lives without goal and recently dumped. by his girlfriend, 24 year old son. Do they realize that he is showing signs of depression? I don’t think that’s the case. This is how he finds comfort and unconditional love with his dear grandmother. Her dear grandmother, who is embarrassed and angry at having been cheated.

What can Thelma do about it? The cops are no help. So she passes by the guy on a scooter, Ben (Richard Roundtree from TREE fame), and ends up riding her two-seater scooter – it’s like a tricycle with a top speed of around 0.7 mph – across the city, aiming for the address where she sent the money. I think it’s important to note that Ben sits in the back seat while she drives. Of course, this excursion is completely forbidden, because his daughter Gail, Daniel or anyone would in no way approve of this type of behavior. But Thelma wants to fight back, even if it means going away for a while and worrying everyone. She might also really need to make a new friend and go on an adventure, for the sake of living here right now.

What films will this remind you of? : The bones of this premise look a lot like The beekeeperbut Thelma does her own dirty work instead of asking Jason Statham to do it.

Performances to watch: The chemistry between Squibb and Hechinger is tender, sweet, and thoughtful, and it ends up being the beating heart of this funny little film.

Memorable dialogues: I like these two lines:

Thelma, after learning that scammers are exploiting Facebook to obtain personal information that they will use to scam you: “Shouldn’t Zuckemborg (sic) be able to fix this?

Ben provides the metatextual commentary on this plot when he says, “This whole thing has been really ridiculous. »

Sex and skin: None.

Our opinion: A comic point that advances this plot: there is a scene in which Thelma and Daniel watch a Mission: Impossible movie, and it ends up inspiring him to get on that scooter, poop around town, get a gun (!), and get back the stolen money. She can’t run, run, run, run like Tom Cruise, but she can channel his spirit, so the film playfully adopts the structure and musical score of an action film and satirizes certain tropes of the genre. There’s a terrific sequence at the end of the film where Ben, speaking to Thelma through their app-connected phones and hearing aids, speaks into her earpiece and helps her navigate a cluttered antique store. I burst out laughing.

But behind this stupidity lies ThélmaThe Greatest Strength of: An empathetic exploration of an elderly woman’s struggle with loneliness, codependency, and stagnation. Not that the film is an all-out drama; rather, it’s a feel-good comedy that isn’t content to be simple and superficial like many other films of its ilk. The chemistry between Roundtree – he died in 2023, and this is his last role – and Squibb is warm and funny, and Thelma’s relationship with Daniel puts them in a gently contradictory position against the neurotic and nervous Gail and Alan ( Posey and Gregg elicit their share of laughs despite limited screen time).

First-time screenwriter and director Josh Margolin manages to find the honest truth in the character’s weaknesses of young slackers and old ladies without resorting to stereotypes or too-easy jokes. Hechinger brings more substance to Daniel than one might expect; it is a subtle portrait of psychological struggle. And Squibb’s characterization goes much deeper than any joke about cutting-edge technology or malapropisms that old people say. Such attention to detail is what makes Thélma exceptional. Sure, it subverts expectations and offers a bit of snarky comedy at the expense of genre films. But ultimately it’s a film about people and who they are, not what they do. This is a very funny, satisfying and subtly moving film.

Our call: Thelma doesn’t accept anything, and that’s what we’re here for. Spread it.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.