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    ‘Thelma’ Review: Granny Get Your Gun

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    The remarkable June Squibb plays a vengeful scam victim in this ludicrous action-movie spoof.“Thelma,” a mildly amusing, highly improbable codger comedy, is so typical of a certain kind of Sundance movie — sentimental, quirky, ingratiatingly likable — that it feels instantly familiar. Mostly, the film serves as a showcase for the wonderful June Squibb; but this rightly revered character actor was not the only notable asset that the writer-director, Josh Margolin, was blessed with for his first feature. Parker Posey, Clark Gregg, Malcolm McDowell and the storied Richard Roundtree (who died last year) were all on hand, making it even more disappointing that Margolin couldn’t provide them with a richer, more satisfying script.Instead, we have action-movie silliness that’s barely more plausible than the plot of “Sharknado” (2013). When we meet Thelma (Squibb), a sturdy, nonagenarian widow, she’s navigating a computer screen with the help of her doting grandson, Daniel (Fred Hechinger). Their mutual fondness feels easy and genuine, so when an unknown caller claims that Daniel has been involved in a terrible car accident and needs $10,000 in cash for legal representation, Thelma’s distress and compliance are understandable. Less so is the escalating nonsense that follows as Thelma, learning she has been duped, resolves to track down her scammer and retrieve her money.Off she goes, to the accompaniment of a particularly grating soundtrack, having co-opted a mobility scooter and the reluctant help of its sharp-witted owner, Ben (Roundtree). As the two steal a gun and try to outrun Thelma’s overanxious daughter and stuffy son-in-law (Posey and Gregg), the chase-movie absurdities are punctuated by age-related pauses, like Thelma’s repeated encounters with random strangers she thinks she recognizes. These tiny ellipses, and Ben’s gentle solicitousness, are far more resonant than the thriller-style trickiness — including an actual explosion — that surrounds them.Some of the plot is just unnecessary padding, like Daniel’s girlfriend troubles and slacker mentality, spiking in an odd scene where he hysterically bemoans his own uselessness. Yet Margolin’s empathy for Thelma (he based the story on a scam perpetrated on his own grandmother) lends the film a sweetness and occasional poignancy that help mitigate much of the foolishness. The falterings of memory and balance, the falling-away of friends and social engagements — “Thelma” is at its best when noting the vicissitudes of aging, hammered home in Ben and Thelma’s discovery of an old friend’s extreme deterioration. In that sense, the terrifying tug between personal agency and assisted living is both the film’s sourdough starter and its entire loaf.Movies starring cute children or venerated older actors often coast on the good will of critics and audiences, and “Thelma” currently boasts an astonishing 98 percent rating on the website Rotten Tomatoes. That said, the direction is tight, the two leads are charmers and the supporting cast allows them to shine. It all goes down as easily, and as unremarkably, as warm milk. Let’s just say that this one is not for the lactose intolerant.ThelmaRated PG-13. Running time: 1 hour 37 minutes. In theaters. More

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      ‘Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead’ Review: The Laughs Are Alive

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      Wade Allain-Marcus has directed a rollicking update of the 1991 cult favorite.Don’t tell helicopter parents, but the gleefully transgressive flicks that entertained a generation of latchkey wildlings are coming back in style. Wade Allain-Marcus’s rollicking update of the 1991 cult favorite keeps the plot — a 17-year-old slacker named Tanya (Simone Joy Jones) is forced to support her even lazier younger siblings (Donielle Hansley Jr., Ayaamii Sledge and Carter Young) — and amps up the immoral humor. It’s a snappy, gutsy comedy about how kids are spoiled and ignorant, and yet the adult workplace is only passingly more mature.A Black single mother (Patricia Williams) has a nervous breakdown and leaves her four children in the care of an aged tyrant (June Squibb) for the summer. Squibb has played plenty of cackling grannies; even so, Ms. Sturak is her most unhinged. “I watch Madea movies! I know how to discipline you!” she screams, pistol in hand. Those sensitive to slurs will be relieved when she keels over. So are the kids, who ignominiously dispose of the corpse and then realize they need money for food.The rapid-fire script by Chuck Hayward squeezes a joke into every sentence and an economic dig into almost every scene. Tanya is aghast that a rideshare driving shift barely covers a restaurant bill; later, her new boss (Nicole Richie) at a fast-fashion brand shrugs off a rash of factory employee suicides. Even condensing the story, there’s no fixing the ridiculous ending by which point the film is out of gas. But despite being affixed to the guardrails of a reboot, this naughty thrill boasts some boisterous jolts and a charming romance between Tanya and a more emotionally developed boy (Miles Fowler) who inspires her to grow up.Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s DeadRated R for teen drug use, language and some sexual references. Running time: 1 hour 39 minutes. In theaters. More

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      'Family Squares' Takes on the Pandemic, Zoom and Human Nature

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      Secrets erupt and tensions are bared when the bereaved Worth family gathers on Zoom.“I just want to say, I am so happy that Mom did not die of Covid,” says Bobby Worth (Henry Winkler) in “Family Squares,” a film told through FaceTime, Zoom and phone calls immediately before and after the death of the Worth family matriarch, Mabel (June Squibb).That a dying loved one evaded the virus may be little consolation to the grief-stricken, but it’s precisely this plot point that allows Stephanie Laing, the writer and director, to poke gentle fun at our shared pandemic predicament. Her film is a lighthearted and touching look at the feuds, resentments and secrets that can surface when someone dies.The film underlines the idea that it’s never too late to tell the truth or repair tattered bonds. Mabel, on videos played after her death, urges her descendants to heal their broken relationships.The star-studded cast is introduced in a hectic grid: The faces include Mabel’s son, Bobby; daughter, Diane (Margo Martindale); late-in-life partner, Judith (Ann Dowd); and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.After less than a minute of virtual overtalk, Chad (Scott MacArthur), a whistle blower grandson hiding out in Russia, suggests they raise their hands when they want to speak; the others respond with mocking middle fingers.The inherent clumsiness of Zoom interactions gives rise to other funny moments, such as a decision by Cassie (Elsie Fisher) to sit with Mabel’s body “until the free session runs out.” When she’s still there a while later, her father asks incredulously, “How has it not expired yet?” (She has upgraded to a premium account, using his credit card.)Laing’s writing is sharp, drawing vivid characters and exposing family tensions through acerbic dialogue. For example, one granddaughter, Dorsey (Judy Greer), in a dig at her sister, Katie (Casey Wilson), comments, “Your kitchen looks really nice. How much did Grandma spend on that remodel?”Filmed during quarantine in 2020, “Family Squares” uses the communication tools of the pandemic era to deliver a film with the intimacy of a home movie, while still exploring the chaos and limitations of technology.Family SquaresRated R for language. Running time: 1 hour 39 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on Amazon, Vudu and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators. More

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      ‘The Humans’ Review: Reasons (Not) to be Cheerful

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      Stephen Karam’s film adaptation of his powerful play acquires a supernatural sheen as a family gathers for Thanksgiving dinner.“The Humans” — Stephen Karam’s startling film of his 2016 Tony Award-winning play — has seven characters, only six of whom are human. The seventh is a dilapidated Manhattan apartment where three generations of the Blake family have convened for Thanksgiving dinner.The occasion is also a housewarming for Brigid (Beanie Feldstein) and her boyfriend, Richard (Steven Yeun), who have just moved in together and seem blithely unfazed by the monstrous disrepair of their new home. Not so Brigid’s father, Erik (Richard Jenkins), whom we meet staring through a filthy window at the uninviting courtyard below. There’s something despairing in the slump of his shoulders and the set of his mouth; but neither his wife, Deirdre (the magnificent Jayne Houdyshell, reprising her stage role), nor his older daughter, Aimee (Amy Schumer), seems to notice. His mother, Momo (June Squibb), her mind confiscated by dementia, is demanding all their attention.“Don’t wait until after dinner,” Deirdre whispers ominously to Erik, teasing at least one uncomfortable revelation. And as the evening wears on and banal pleasantries rub shoulders with more pointed exchanges, secrets spill with almost comical regularity. The confessions and tensions are commonplace, but “The Humans” is never less than high on the terrible power of the mundane. To that end, Karam, aided by Skip Lievsay’s marvelous sound design, gives the apartment an eerie, sinister life. Thuds and groans and rumbles disturb the dinner, as if the family’s psychic baggage — Erik’s petrifying nightmares; Momo’s unearthly screaming fit — has stirred something foul in the home’s sludgy depths.Thrusting into every crumbling corner, Lol Crawley’s camera distorts and blurs. A faceted glass doorknob turns the screen into a honeycomb of refracted light. Pustules of water-damaged paint bloom on the walls and exposed pipes flake and gurgle. An oppressive sense of ruin blankets the film, its repeated adoption of Erik’s gaze suggesting the projection of an ongoing mental collapse.“Don’t you think it should cost less to be alive?” he bursts out at one point, seemingly at random, as if the decrepitude around him has stirred much larger anxieties. And had I not seen the play, I may not have fully registered how ingeniously Karam has used the freedom of film to open up and underscore his already powerful material. Inside that haunted house, the family members in “The Humans” are all as trapped as Momo is in her illness, shrieking uselessly into the void.The HumansRated R for serious illness and a sex-related secret. Running time: 1 hour 48 minutes. In theaters and on Showtime platforms. More