Action has a new name… and it’s Thelma. Magnolia Pictures released the first trailer for director Josh Margolin’s feature directorial debut, starring Oscar nominee June Squibb (Nebraska, Inside Out 2) in her first leading role as an aggrieved grandmother. The poignant action-comedy — which also stars Fred Hechinger (The White Lotus), Clark Gregg (The Avengers), Parker Posey (Lost in Space), Malcolm McDowell (Franklin & Bash), and Richard Roundtree (Shaft) in his final performance — is inspired by a real-life experience of Margolin’s own grandmother and puts a clever spin on movies like Mission: Impossible.
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Watch the Thelma trailer below.
The official synopsis: “Thelma Post is a feisty 93-year-old grandmother who gets conned by a phone scammer pretending to be her grandson (Hechinger) and sets out on a treacherous quest across Los Angeles, accompanied by an aging friend (Roundtree) and his motorized scooter, to reclaim what was taken from her. In the first leading film role of her 70-year career, Squibb portraysthe strong-willed Thelma with grit and determination, demonstrating thatshe is more than capable of taking care of business – despite what herdaughter Gail (Posey), son-in-law Alan (Gregg), or grandson Danny mightbelieve.”
Squibb performed most of her own stunts in the film, which spotlights “an elderly grandmother as an unlikely action hero,” the description continues. “With infectious humor, Margolin employs the familiar tropes of the action genre in hilarious, age-appropriate ways to tackle aging with agency.”
“The idea behind themovie, our director, Josh Margolin — writer, director, and editor — hisreal grandmother, Thelma Post, who’s 103 years old, is the basis forJune’s character…His real grandmother was almost the victim of a phonescam similar to this, so he sort of imagined, ‘If she was, what wouldshe do?’” Hechinger told Collider. “And in his experiences, and my experiences, and I think all ofour experiences, a lot of the times the most heroic and powerful people do not get depicted on film very much.And I think it’s very true of Josh’s real grandmother, and it’s verytrue of June herself, that if someone messed with you in that way, youwould be determined to figure out how to get your money back and how toright that wrong.”
Hechinger continued, “And so, that was the other jumping-off point was, whatdoes that actually look like? What does action, in all of its fragility, in all of its commitment, in all of its messiness actually look like on screen?”
Thelma is in theaters June 21.
