In "Thelma," June Squibb is "America's New Action Hero" at Age 94

 

Based on the experiences of writer/director Josh Margolin's 104-year-old grandmother, and marking June Squibb's first leading film role of her 70+ year career, "Thelma" has made Squibb "America's new action hero at the age of 94," according to Jimmy Kimmel. 

A longtime stage actress, cruise ship performer, and supporting actress in films, Squibb won an Oscar nomination for the 2013 film "Nebraska" at the age of 84. She played Lena Dunham's grandmother on "Girls" and voiced Gramsy in "Little Ellen," based on the childhood of Ellen DeGeneres. The 2015 movie "I’ll See You in My Dreams" featured a pot party followed by a munchie run with gal pals played by Squibb, Blythe Danner, Rhea Perlman and Mary Kay Place. 

In "Thelma," Squibb's character gets a scam call from someone pretending to be her grandson in jail, and demanding she send $10,000 to an address in LA's San Fernando Valley to spring him. When she learns she's been scammed, she takes matters into her own hands and sets out to get her money back. 

Thelma is shown being baffled by modern gadgets like electric vehicles and computers. She keeps thinking she knows people she sees on the street, and most of the friends she calls for help have had accidents or died. Sneaking up the stairs at a friend's house to grab her gun, she nearly trips on the carpet. But she manages to succeed by hijacking an electric scooter, which Squibb learned to drive so well she performed most of her own stunts in the film. Thelma also uses her hearing aids as a secret-agent tool, and when she encounters the bad guy, played by Malcolm McDowell, she gives him grandmotherly advice.  

Rhea Perlman, Blythe Danner, Mary Kay Place and Squibb
on a munchie run in "I'll See You in My Dreams" (2015).

Squibb's performance in "Thelma" has been nominated for an AARP "Movies for Grownups" Award, and a Saturn Award. She was nominated for three EDA (Excellent Dynamic Activism) awards by the Alliance of Women Film Journalists: Best Actress, Best Breakthrough Performance, and Best Stunt Performance (which she won).  

Playing Thelma's partner in (undoing a) crime is none other than Richard Roundtree, in what turned out to be his final film before his death in 2023. Roundtree was considered the first black action hero when he starred in the "Shaft" movies and TV show in the 1970s. He's still dashing and dapper here at 81, even as his character comes to grips with the limitations that age brings. He tries to tell Thelma about the "many wonderful" benefits of mangoes (one of which is that they can make a marijuana high more intense). But she cuts his message off. 

Also featured is the always-sparkling Parker Posey as Thelma's daughter, a psychiatrist who prescribes Zoloft to an anxious patient, warns her son that alcohol is a depressant, and mentions that a friend's son "vapes" and "has no agency." Posey starred as a pot-puffing librarian in the 1995 Indie hit "Party Girl."

Squibb can also be heard as the voice of Nostalgia in "Inside Out 2." Her starring role in Scarlett Johansson's directorial debut "Eleanor the Great" has wrapped.  

Asked by Sundance.org, "How do you want people to feel after they see your film," Margolin replied, "I want them to call their oldest living relative to say hi."