ADRIAN FLORIDO, HOST:
In the movie "Inside Out 2," there is a recurring joke featuring a little old lady emotion named Nostalgia. Nostalgia is voiced by June Squibb, and it's exactly the kind of scene-stealing, supporting role that she's always excelled at. June Squibb's new comedy "Thelma" gives the 94-year-old actress her first leading role on screen, and critic Bob Mondello says she makes up for lost time.
BOB MONDELLO, BYLINE: Thelma may not be great with computers.
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JUNE SQUIBB: (As Thelma) I'm scrolling.
FRED HECHINGER: (As Daniel) No, you're not scrolling. Look.
SQUIBB: (As Thelma) Oh.
HECHINGER: (As Daniel) Look. This is scrolling.
SQUIBB: (As Thelma) OK.
MONDELLO: But two years into widowhood, she's holding up pretty well.
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SQUIBB: (As Thelma) Wait.
HECHINGER: (As Daniel) What?
SQUIBB: (As Thelma) The - stop fussing with it.
MONDELLO: She lives on her own in a condo in LA, enjoys watching Tom Cruise movies with Danny, her underemployed grandson.
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SQUIBB: (As Thelma) Is that a stuntman?
HECHINGER: (As Daniel) No. That's the whole thing. He does all himself.
SQUIBB: (As Thelma) Wow.
HECHINGER: (As Daniel) That's Cruise.
MONDELLO: Danny also gives her rides and accepts life advice about girlfriends and the like.
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HECHINGER: (As Daniel) We're just in different places as people, you know? She thinks I'm stuck.
SQUIBB: (As Thelma) You're too young to be stuck.
HECHINGER: (As Daniel) I don't feel young.
SQUIBB: (As Thelma) Well, I don't feel old.
HECHINGER: (As Daniel) Oy.
SQUIBB: (As Thelma) Oy is right.
HECHINGER: (As Daniel, laughter).
SQUIBB: (As Thelma) You're going to land on your feet like Cruise.
MONDELLO: They are mutually supportive. He makes sure she wears her wrist monitor, so he'll know she's OK. But then one morning, Thelma gets a phone call.
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AUTOMATED VOICE: Hearing aid connected.
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UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character, impersonating Daniel) Grandma.
SQUIBB: (As Thelma) Hello?
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character, impersonating Daniel) Grandma, it's me. Can you hear me?
SQUIBB: (As Thelma) Danny? You sound so strange.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character, impersonating Daniel) I'm in jail.
SQUIBB: (As Thelma) Oh, my God.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character, impersonating Daniel ) Mail $10,000 to this address.
SQUIBB: (As Thelma) Ten thousand dollars?
MONDELLO: She gets cash from the bank and sends it and then discovers she's been scammed. Danny was home asleep. And the police are no help.
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CHASE KIM: (As Detective Morgan) They contact people at random using telephone listings and social networking sites.
SQUIBB: (As Thelma) Like Facebook?
KIM: (As Detective Morgan) Sure. Like Facebook.
SQUIBB: (As Thelma) Well, how can Zuckemborg (ph) let this happen?
KIM: (As Detective Morgan) Sorry?
SQUIBB: (As Thelma) Shouldn't Zuckemborg be able to fix this?
KIM: (As Detective Morgan) Are you on Facebook?
SQUIBB: (As Thelma) Am I?
HECHINGER: (As Daniel) No, you're not. She's not. This was a tangent.
MONDELLO: When her family starts wondering if she should really be left on her own anymore...
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CLARK GREGG: (As Alan) This wouldn't have happened a year ago. She's not as self-reliant as she was.
MONDELLO: ...Thelma turns off her hearing aid and starts plotting to get her money back. She enlists the aid and electric mobility scooter...
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RICHARD ROUNDTREE: (As Ben) Nice and easy. Nice and easy.
MONDELLO: ...Of an old pal played by the late Richard Roundtree. And together, perhaps inspired by all those Tom Cruise movies, they embark on a geriatric "Mission Impossible," not so much running as briskly walking rings around her family - frantic daughter Parker Posey, son-in-law Clark Gregg and Fred Hechinger's sweetly reliable but trickable Danny.
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SQUIBB: (As Thelma) My grandson's parked a block away. I don't have much time.
ROUNDTREE: (As Ben) You left your grandson in the car?
SQUIBB: (As Thelma) He's 24.
MONDELLO: Filmmaker Josh Margolin based the title character on his own grandmother and is clear at every step about the frailties of age, though he's delighted to let a formidable June Squibb show how those frailties can be overcome with a bit of grit and quick wit.
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ROUNDTREE: (As Ben) Why are we stopping at Mona's?
SQUIBB: (As Thelma) To get a gun.
ROUNDTREE: (As Ben) Oh, my God. What do we need a gun for?
SQUIBB: (As Thelma) That's - I like to be prepared.
ROUNDTREE: (As Ben) Do you even know how to use it?
SQUIBB: (As Thelma) Well, how hard can it be? Idiots use them all the time.
MONDELLO: Considering that Roundtree was knocking heads together in "Shaft" a full two decades before Squibb had her first supporting role on screen, she more than holds her own here, sharp and funny, whether laser-focused on the task at hand or, as is more often the case, slightly distracted.
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SQUIBB: (As Thelma) Oh, I think I know her.
MONDELLO: Margolin's script is an understated hoot. Nick Chuba's score, a cool riff on Lalo Schifrin, and the film is arguably the most Sundance-ian (ph) comedy since "Little Miss Sunshine" - movie savvy, down to Earth, relatable.
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SQUIBB: (As Thelma) We all have our good days and our bad days.
ROUNDTREE: (As Ben) And what's today?
SQUIBB: (As Thelma) We'll find out.
MONDELLO: For anyone watching "Thelma," it'll be a good day. I'm Bob Mondello.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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