I did not know much about June Squibb’s supporting roles until I looked up her credits and was quite shocked. She was in a lot of great films like About Schmidt and Nebraska—the latter of which earned her an Oscar nomination. I remember her best from the soap opera Young and the Restless and the TV series The Ghost Whisperer. I also noticed her voice work in Toy Story 4 and Soul. I cannot wait to hear her voice in the upcoming sequel to Inside Out. But now she makes her outrageous leading role debut in Thelma.
Thelma followed Squibb as 93-year-old Thelma Post, who fell for a nasty phone scam when the +perpetrator pretended to be her grandson. What followed was heartwarming hilarity left and right as she went on a John Wick style crusade to get her money back! As crazy as this story seemed, it was also based on true events! The film’s director/writer, Josh Margolin, was inspired by his grandmother, Thelma.
It is an inspiring one, too; I hope that when I am 93 years old, I am also taking down criminals. While the narrative was not as wild as someone who came up with a movie like Hobo with a Shotgun, there were a lot of grounding themes that resonated with me. A movie like this struck chords in me and hit close to home on the feels. My grandma is 84 years old, and she still does amazing things, as Thelma has accomplished in this film.
“Thelma’s journey is a heartwarming blend of believability and outrageous fun, inspired by true events.”
While I was watching, I was constantly reminded of all the grandmother-isms that I had witnessed in my life. I think the one of the most relatable is when Thelma would go up to random strangers and be like, ‘did you know so and so’, only to have a conversation with them for about ten minutes to find out they are not related to the person they originally mentioned at all. Probably the best element of Thelma was its ability to maintain a balance of the believability of her journey versus the unbelievable parts.
Another part that caught me chuckling was when someone was explaining something to her and she would just respond ‘what’ or ‘pardon me’ because that has happened between my grandma and myself on countless occasions. On the concept of believability, Thelma’s apartment in the movie is the real apartment that the real 103-year-old Thelma lives into this day. I thought the set decorator/designer specifically chose those wallpaper designs with inspiration from other references of other older peoples’ homes. They reminded me of The White Lotus openings.
To make all of this possible, Squibb proved she had 70+ years of acting experience because her comedic timing and endearing moments were sublime. Her ability to be funny with her I-can-do-it-myself attitude was great, just as much as her serious moments when she was vying for independence from her family. The serious moments made me understand my grandma’s perspective a lot more because I was able to see how much autonomy people in their older age lose because their motor functions are just not as good as they once were.
“The film beautifully balances themes of aging, family, and autonomy, resonating deeply with audiences.”
Even though this was Squibb’s first leading role in her decades of work, she effortlessly took the spotlight. I would never have believed she was not a leading character before. It was reported she also did all her stunts for this film, which blew my mind for some of the things she had to do—mainly the driving around with the electric scooter moments!
The late Richard Roundtree, one of Thelma’s last remaining close friends, Ben, served as a great companion to Squibb’s Thelma. Ben was the heartwarming opposite of Thelma because he accepted his loss of pride in doing everything for himself; he realized that asking for help at his age was necessary. Where Thelma believed she could do everything herself, I felt every gut-wrenching moment of Ben trying to convince her otherwise.
Sadly, this was Roundtree’s final film role before his passing in October 2023, 3 months before the film’s world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. He really gave us one last captivating performance in this movie. The other character that tore me apart was Thelma’s grandson, Daniel (played by Fred Hechinger). Hechinger must have taken care of his own grandma really well, or his acting references were just too good.
I saw a lot of myself in Daniel because the opening shot of him on the phone with his grandma trying to help her open emails on her PC reminds me of all the times I have to help my grandma do things on her phone. Also, Daniel’s overprotective/overbearing parents, Alan and Gail, were also scarily accurate to my parents at times.
The overall strength of Thelma was its ability to offer raw emotion from every actor, with lines that are so easy to connect with. There is something here that many audiences who have grown up around their grandparents, or are approaching that age, can relate to. The themes of aging, family and autonomy rang true; Thelma proved that everyone can still move and be relevant – even in their later years, when everyone pities the elderly. Never underestimate those with decades of experience!
Even with a linear story I could have predicted how it would have ended, there were a few surprises along the journey. The tight runtime helped keep the pacing up for a story aiming to lean towards an action/comedy, allowing the core characters to deliver swift comedic jabs. Without a doubt, audiences should go see Thelma with their grandparents—or just for nostalgia’s sake.
