Who says women over the age of 80 or even 90 are past their prime? Just ask June Squibb who at the age of 94 stars in her first leading role, in an action movie no less.

Squibb plays Thelma, a nonagenarian who lives on her own after her husband died. The film’s cute opening shows her trying to figure out how to use her computer with the help of her caring grandson Danny (Fred Hechinger). She received a phone call from someone pretending to be a grandson and asking her to send money to an address.

It turns out to be a scam which happens quite often to older people, as her family and the incredibly unhelpful police tell her. Well, those scammers pick the wrong grandma! Inspired by Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt in Mission Impossible, a movie she watched with Danny at one point, Thelma decides to go on her own impossible mission to get her money back. Along the way, she managed to enlist the help of a friend Ben played by the late Richard Rountree who lives in a senior living facility. Primarily Thelma just needs to use Ben’s scooter to get around because she no longer has a car.

Yes, this movie has action tropes, but it still feels fresh because it features a 90+-year-old who proves to be far more capable than her family gives her credit for. She often outmaneuvers and outsmarts her own daughter (Parker Posey), son-in-law (Clark Gregg) and Danny who are all worried sick when she goes missing Director John Margolin keeps the movie engaging and fun from start to finish, thanks to Squibb’s adorable performance, armed with one-liners and no-nonsense determination. The jokes involving aging and memory issues, such as when Thelma occasionally mistakes people she thought she knew, are hilarious without taking cheap shots at the elderly community. Squibb apparently is one of the executive producers, so she clearly took matters into her own hands by casting herself in a lead role after 60+ years in the industry always in supporting roles.

The movie is well-paced, and the energy always shoots up whenever Thelma is on screen. The upbeat whimsical score by Nick Chuba (also the composer for the phenomenal SHŌGUN series) is a fun riff on some of the popular action genre scores but it wonderfully complements the action.

It’s good that the movie focuses on Thelma 97% of the time because it drags a bit when it shifts to other characters, especially Posey who can be quite irksome because she often plays the same quirky character. I’ve never seen Hechinger before but he’s quite memorable here while Malcolm McDowell’s casting in a pivotal role is pretty ingenious. The brief scene between Thelma and McDowell’s character in the third act is pretty hysterical.

Overall, Thelma is a riotous crowd-pleaser, one of the best comedy heist flicks I’ve seen in a while. It’s thigh-snappingly funny but also heartwarming. Thelma and Danny’s tender relationship makes me miss my late grandma. It’s certainly one of my favorites of the MSPIFF 2024 so far and will likely make my top 10 best of the year.

Have you seen THELMA yet? I’d love to hear what you think!

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