Welcome back stinkers! I have a new review for you today! Thelma is a movie about a kick ass action hero, Thelma, played by June Squibb. She gets a scam call of someone pretending to be her grandson, and she gives into their commands and gives them $10,000. Thelma then leaves her family, and she tries to get her money back. This review is going to feature a quick non-spoiler review, and I’ll get into more from there.
Thelma: Non-Spoiler Review
This might just be the most slept on movie of 2024. I found the comedy to be funny and great, and at its core, it was very sweet and endearing. It was really a movie where you could learn from. Something I wish they got more into was the friendship side of things. I’ll talk about specifics in a moment, but they start to get into a side of things where Thelma is aging, and she’s grown apart from her friends. Now some of her friends were literally dead, but it was still something that was touched upon. I just think that if they went a little bit more in that old person friendship side of things, it would’ve made for more of an emotional movie. I still thought that this movie was very heartfelt and sweet.
Thelma: Spoiler Review
Now that my quick non-spoiler review is out of the way, I wanted to talk a little bit about some spoilers. I’ll be further elaborating on some of my previous thoughts. As I talk more in depth about the film, I will be marching into spoiler territory. You have been warned.
Thelma
Now I just wanted to kick it off by talking about Thelma herself. You might know June Squibb as a ton of different grandmas. Whether it was Auntie Alice from Modern Family, Nostalgia from the recent Inside Out 2, or Meemaw from the Big Bang Theory. I believe Thelma is Squibb’s best. Not only Squibb’s best, but I also think she might be one of the best on screen grandmas. Thelma was hilarious! Thelma literally kicked ass in here. I also like the character arc that she goes through. It isn’t exactly all that noticeable, but she starts to be more true to herself and her age. She kind of grows back out of her shell (she never really had one to begin with) and she builds back connections with some of her friends. Thelma realizes that she isn’t alone in this, and she has family and friends to help.
Ben: You sure you can even use a gun?
Thelma: How hard can it be? Idiots use them all the time.
That might just have to be my favorite joke that is in here. That wasn’t the only funny moment, there were plenty of laughs throughout the film. She was quite the action hero. Granted there wasn’t necessarily a whole lot of action in the film, but it is still really fun. Now the big plot point of the film is that she falls for a scam, and she goes out to find that scammer. The story to get there was great! Then you get to the final stage of the journey where she comes face to face with the duo that scammed her. It was a very sweet moment in the film. That moment kind of shows the character journey that Thelma went through. It was quite satisfying when she got her money back. That’s how great the journey to get there was.
Ben
Now I got quite the surprise out of Ben. Ben is played by the late Richard Roundtree, and he did an amazing job. I didn’t exactly expect to like Ben as much as I did. I thought that he was funny, and that he was such a cool character. What was probably the best part about his character, was that he bounced off of Thelma. Thelma was off trying to do her own thing, but Ben tries to ground her to reality for a bit. You then have the cherry on top, that would be the chemistry between these two characters. They were able to bounce off of each other beautifully. I would say that it was these two that carried the movie. They were hilarious, and I just thought that their chemistry really worked.
Now another thing that I wanted to bring up, was old friends. I mentioned that Ben was able to make Thelma more grounded in reality, but he was also the one that literally pulled her back up. That was literally represented when Ben came back and helped Thelma off of the ground. Ben was able to help Thelma build relations again and made her comfortable with her age. Whenever their old friends get brought up, it was really sweet. I do however think they should’ve dived more into those relations. When they visited their old friend’s house, it could’ve been a more emotional part of the film. But, to me, they kind of played it off as a joke.
Danny
Now the last character that I wanted to bring up was Thelma’s grandson, Danny. This wasn’t just one of the funniest parts of the film, but it was the most relatable. Seeing the movie in the theater was special to me. I fortunate enough to see it with my own grandmother, and I loved watching it with her, and I know she loved watching it with me. She even joked about the fact that when Thelma and Danny were checking emails was me and her. I think it was even more special, because it was a shared experience that only the two of us had in out theater. Safe to say that this movie knows how to pull an audience because my theater was packed with older people. So, I don’t know if this movie was relatable for other people, but it was sure relatable for me.
As of the Danny character himself, I think they could’ve done a better job. There was a bit of a sub plot in here with his ex-girlfriend, and that he isn’t the best at math. I thought that showing him become a better person was sweet, but I didn’t necessarily care for. I don’t think that it was necessary that he was bad at math. It wasn’t even necessary for them to include his girlfriend. That goes back to one of my favorite parts of the film, which was the moments with Danny and Thelma. They were certainly sweet and funny together.
Thelma: Review Recap
That’s going to be about it for my review of Thelma. This is certainly going to be one of the most slept on movies of the year. This was a such a sweet and funny movie. I don’t think it will be in my top 10, but it will be one that I will love and won’t forget. I was fortunate enough to see this with my grandma, and I think you should see it with yours too.
Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to catch up on another one of my movie reviews! You might have noticed that the blog has been going through a bit of a format change. That is only step one of the Big Stinker evolution. So, stay tuned for social medias, and other things that’ll step up the blog. Make sure you check out The Big Stinker Blog for coverage on movies, TV, gaming, and reviews and breakdowns. I will be working on the site behind the scenes a little longer. However, I will be in and out with reviews and breakdowns. Things like Despicable Me 4 and a breakdown of the new Agatha All Along trailer. So, until next time stinkers! Bye bye.