Movie Review

Lovable movie Thelma shows perils of old people using technology

Richard Roundtree and June Squibb in Thelma.

Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures

Anyone with older parents or grandparents in the 21st century has almost certainly gone through the ~~frustrating~~ experience of trying to teach or explain new technology to them. The technological divide is real, and only seems to get worse with each passing year. The new film Thelma hilariously takes on that scenario with a story that’s alternately sweet and exciting.

As the film begins, the 93-year-old Thelma (June Squibb) is having her grandson Danny (Fred Hechinger) help her scroll through her e-mail box to find a video of her late husband. Although Thelma is still with it mentally, the challenges of technology are a bit beyond her skillset. This becomes even more apparent when a person purporting to be Danny calls and tells her he’s in jail, and needs $10,000 to get out. She immediately sends the cash, only to soon discover that she’s been scammed.

With the police unable to help her in any real way, and her family – Danny, daughter Gail (Parker Posey), and son-in-law Alan (Clark Gregg) – concerned more with her cognitive ability than her money, Thelma ropes in her friend Ben (Richard Roundtree) and his motorized scooter to track down the scammers on the other side of town. The ensuing pursuit is simultaneously the slowest one ever recorded on film and relatively thrilling.

Writer/director Josh Margolin, who was inspired to make the film by his own grandmother (stay for the credits for a sweet scene of the real Thelma), has a deft touch with the slight-yet-fulfilling story. Plenty of fun is made of Thelma’s physical limitations and her difficulty grasping knowledge about computers, but it’s done in a respectful way that never mocks her for what she can’t do. The humor comes from not just her technological issues, but also Danny patiently guiding her through increasingly fraught scenarios.

The character of Thelma is set up as one who’s almost impossible not to like, starting with the delightful bond she shares with Danny. She’s very strong-willed, something that Gail, Alan, and Ben see up close, but she’s also so charming that none of them can stay mad at her for long. One of the film’s funniest throughlines is her asking multiple people if she knows them, a sign of an aging mind that turns into a crucial plot point in the final act.

What’s especially remarkable is that Margolin manages to maintain a light mood even through the film’s heavier moments. Thelma and Ben stop at the house of their friend Mona (Bunny Levine), who lives alone despite clearly being in the depths of dementia. Margolin somehow plays the scene both for laughs and heartbreak, a threading of the needle he does on multiple occasions to keep the story humming.

The 95-year-old Squibb, who’s experienced one of the busiest times in her career after being nominated for an Oscar for 2013’s Nebraska, is a joy to watch in every frame of the film she occupies. She’s the epitome of the kindly grandmother, but the spirit she displays makes her determined character highly believable. The presence of Posey, Gregg, and Hechinger elevates the relatively small number of scenes they’re in, and Roundtree is showcased in a great way in what would turn out to be his final film role.

There have been a number of movies pairing old actors and trying to mine their ages for laughs in recent years, but none of them have the wit and charm that Thelma does. Margolin turned his love for his grandmother into a film that honors her, and also gives Squibb, Roundtree, and others the opportunity to show that age is just a number when it comes to their ability to entertain the masses.

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Thelma is now playing in theaters.

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Movie Review

Horrific filmmaking makes DC villain Clayface less appealing

Photo by Parisa Taghizadeh

Tom Rhys Harries and Naomi Ackie in Clayface.

The history of DC Comics in movies has been hit-and-miss, especially when it comes to anything not directly involving Batman or Superman. Over the years, films have been headlined by heroes like Catwoman, Green Lantern, Aquaman, Shazam, the Flash, and more, and while some succeeded, none left a lasting mark on moviegoers’ imaginations.

Much like they did with Joker, the powers-that-be behind DC Studios productions are trying to entice viewers with a no-holds-barred story in Clayface. Matt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries) is an A-list movie actor with both critical and commercial appeal. Unfortunately, a night of celebration for his recent Oscar nomination leads to him sleeping with Theresa (Ruby Sear), the girlfriend of Markos Szabo (David Dencik), a prominent mobster in Gotham City. Markos then enacts revenge by taking a razor to Matt’s face.

Desperate to find a way to look like his old self again, Matt seeks out Dr. Caitlyn Corr (Naomi Ackie), who’s conducting cutting-edge nanotechnology research that can heal any kind of damage. While the solution works on Matt, it also has the side effect of his body doing unintended things, even morphing into those with whom he comes into contact. After initially struggling with his new body, Matt decides to use his powers to enact revenge on those who’ve done him wrong.

Directed by James Watkins (Speak No Evil) and written by Mike Flanagan (The Life of Chuck) and Hossein Amini, the film is only intermittently entertaining as it tries to sell its ridiculous premise. Right from the start, it seems like the filmmakers have been given a limited budget, as everything from the sets to the CGI to the stilted dialogue feels cheap. For a film coming from a major studio, the whole thing comes off as schlocky and undercooked.

Watkins and his team try to make up for that shoddiness by delivering R-rated thrills like nudity and body horror, but those elements can only distract for so long. Much of the film is spent dealing with Matt’s trauma, and the downbeat nature of his body issues combined with very little action makes the movie not very fun to watch. The film also tries to make hay with more than a doctor-patient bond between Caitlyn — who has a boyfriend on the police force — and Matt, but like the most of the film, it never connects.

It’s not until the final third of the movie that the filmmakers land on the tone they should have been using the whole time. Matt’s ability to transform himself, while illogical and confounding, provides multiple over-the-top, funny moments and some legitimately creative kills. Instead of taking forever to set up Matt/Clayface’s origin story, Watkins and his team should have just cut to the chase and let him loose to see what the character could truly do.

This is the first big role for Welsh actor Harries, and while he’s not exactly magnetic, he proves himself worthy of the lead role. Ackie is also fine, but after several years of trying to advance up the Hollywood ladder, she may be running out of time to show she’s a star. The supporting cast has a couple of familiar faces, but it’s mostly lesser-known actors who do nothing to indicate they deserve bigger showcases.

It’s difficult to imagine any non-DC Comics fans having a strong attachment to the character of Clayface, and the film fails to make the case that he should be a continuing character. The poor quality of almost everything that appears on screen is indicative of the kind of effort and money that was put into the film, and sometimes you really do get what you pay for.

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Clayface opens in theaters on October 23.

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