Film Review of the Week

Comedy

Thelma (12A)

Review: I desperately miss my grandparents, who seemed indestructible from my rose-tinted vantage point as a child, and often get misty-eyed reminiscing about the comfort they brought to my early years. First-time writer-director Josh Margolin embraces the same feelings in a warm-hearted caper inspired by his relationship with his grandmother Thelma (103 years old and still fabulous judging by delightful home video footage snuck into the end credits).

At the film’s beating heart is the touching bond between a feisty 93-year-old widow (June Squibb) and her aimless 24-year-old grandson (Fred Hechinger), who clearly cherishes every moment spent together. “I didn’t expect to get so old,” she observes. “I’m glad you did,” he tenderly responds. Their relationship provides Margolin’s picture with a flurry of emotional wallops that left me crying uncontrollably through repeated, hearty chuckles.

On screen, the title character marvels at Tom Cruise’s daredevil heroics in Mission: Impossible – Fallout on her TV and 94-year-old Oscar-nominated actress Squibb performs many of her own stunts with twinkly-eyed gusto. She is a boundless delight and catalyses a sparkling double-act with Shaft actor Richard Roundtree, who died in 2023. Thelma is his final screen performance. Margolin deftly navigates tricky subject matter concerning age and assisted living with a veneer of sweet humour to make the bitter pills easier to swallow.

Thelma Post (Squibb) lives alone in the home she shared, until recently, with her late husband. Grandson Danny (Hechinger) dotes on her and implores her to wear a medical alert bracelet connected to his mobile ’phone. “If I fall, I’m toast,” Thelma tells him. “That’s why I don’t fall.” Danny introduces his grandmother to the internet and attempts to swat away suggestions from his parents (Parker Posey, Clark Gregg) that the time has come to relocate Thelma to an assisted living facility.

Their fears deepen after Thelma is duped out of 10,000 US dollars by a pair of callous phone scammers (Malcolm McDowell, Aidan Fiske) pretending to be Danny. Unwilling to surrender her independence, Thelma embarks on her own mission: impossible to track down the scammers with the help of good friend Ben (Roundtree). A bright red, two-person electric scooter is the dynamic duo’s chariot for the impromptu, hare-brained enterprise. For protection, Thelma borrows a handgun but confides to Ben that she has never fired a weapon. “How hard can it be?” she quips. “Idiots use them all the time!”

Thelma is an effortlessly endearing comedy focused on richly detailed characters, who would usually be consigned to the background by virtue of their advanced years. Squibb is utterly irresistible and perfectly captures her unlikely action hero’s steely resolve and vulnerability. Margolin elevates each beautifully scripted scene: Thelma’s first solo attempt at online banking is staged as a pulse-quickening heist worthy of Ocean’s Eleven. Thelma stole my heart.

Action

Twisters (12A)

Review: Lee Isaac Chung, Oscar-nominated writer-director of the beguiling drama Minari, battens down the hatches to helm a bombastic sequel to the 1996 blockbuster Twister. Almost 30 year later, digital effects have improved significantly but the storytelling in Mark L Smith’s script takes a couple of steps back, refurbishing character archetypes and set pieces from the first film transplanted to a social media-fixated age of wanton self-promotion. Dutch director Jan de Bont was coming off the back of Speed starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock when he took the helm of the Oscar-nominated original film, which sucked almost 500 million dollars out of the global box office.

Twisters should comfortably surpass that milestone, promising spectacular destruction including a tornado bearing down on a cinema packed with terrified civilians, but Chung’s sequel reserves disappointingly little puff for character development. The first iteration compelled us to care about storm chasers because of deep familial ties between Helen Hunt’s heroine and her aunt living in Wakita, Oklahoma, coupled with a smouldering romance between the heroine and her estranged husband (Bill Paxton). Screenwriter Smith trades heavily on nostalgia, reviving the Dorothy tornado instrumentation for a pre-opening credits salvo soaked in tragedy.

If anyone could conceivably charm Mother Nature into submission it would be man of the moment Glen Powell and he works hard to generate on-screen fireworks with Daisy Edgar-Jones. Their pairing repeatedly takes a back seat to eye-popping pyrotechnics and co-star Anthony Ramos in squandered in a thankless supporting role as the third point of a flimsily constructed love triangle with one inevitable outcome. Former storm chaser Kate Cooper (Edgar-Jones) studies meteorological patterns from the relative safety of New York City, five years after a traumatic close encounter with a tornado. Good friend Javi (Anthony Ramos) woos her back into the field to test a groundbreaking 3D mapping system during tornado season in Oklahoma.

The unpredictable weather attracts social media star Tyler Owens (Powell) and his crew, who recklessly chase storms for clicks and followers. “You don’t face your fears, you ride ’em!” Tyler beams at Kate. A terrified British journalist (Harry Hadden-Paton) shadows Tyler for an article as weather systems converge over the state, which Kate’s mother Cathy (Maura Tierney) conveniently calls home.

Twisters is a muscular but uninspired reworking of an era-defining blockbuster that injected humour into the eye of the storm courtesy of flying cows. Chickens are caught in the dizzying whirl here and the absence of ruffled feathers is a perfect metaphor for the confident manner with which Chung’s sequel goes through the meteorological motions. Cast twist and turn but it’s nothing to shout about.