Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Film myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.How old is too old? In cinema at least, a 93-year-old can still be the wrong person to mess with. Witness Thelma, a spry new comedy starring June Squibb, who at that advanced age gives a firework performance as Thelma Post, a vengeful angel in comfortable footwear. With her kindly smile and bafflement at computers, the Los Angeles retiree seems a sitting duck for the cruel modern world. When she is conned out of $10,000, the cops treat the scam as one of those things. Yet Thelma declines to agree. Instead, she vows to retrieve her money from criminal parties unknown. If the title Granny Get Your Gun hadn’t been nabbed by a 1940 comic Western, it would be perfect. Early on, with Thelma packing heat on a mobility scooter, the movie feels like a single running joke, albeit one cracked with panache. But it has sturdier legs than you might expect. While moments meander, there are smart judgment calls. The tone is sweet but not saccharine; the suburban jungle real enough for the hard-boiled riffs to stay the right side of silly; every generation ends up a punchline. As Thelma seeks vigilante justice, a parallel subplot sees her adult grandson Danny (Fred Hechinger) coddled by his middle-aged parents. Gen Xers may feel their own bones creak seeing Danny’s mother, and Thelma’s daughter, played by 1990s indie queen Parker Posey. Yesterday’s ingénue is the anxious mom of today. If that casting call lands as an affectionate gag, another comes with Thelma’s right-hand man, Ben, who’s sprung from a plush care home. That role is taken by Richard Roundtree, star of Shaft, who in the parlance of 1971 was “the Black private dick that’s a sex machine to all the chicks”. (Roundtree died last October; his performance here is charming.)And then there is Squibb, for whom Thelma is the first star role after a multi-decade career filled with supporting parts. The impulse may be to applaud her for that fact alone. A mistake, I’d say. One, she is good enough not to need the condescension. Two, after seeing her in action here, you wouldn’t want to make her angry.★★★☆☆In UK cinemas from July 19 and in US cinemas now
