According to playwright David Mamet, “Age and treachery will always beat youth and exuberance.” And, if 93-year-old Thelma Post (June Squibb) has anything to say about it in this fact-based action-comedy-drama, you can take that notion to the bank. In this story of a spry but sometimes-gullible widowed retiree living on her own, we watch – often in jaw-dropping awe – a feisty, independently minded senior determined…

Grandma "Thelma" (June Squibb) is rather cruelly fleeced by a man pretending that her beloved grandson "Daniel" (Fred Hechinger) has been in a car accident with a pregnant women. $10,000 lighter her family realise she's been scammed and she is having none of it. Recruiting her pal "Ben" (Richard Roundtree) - or, more accurately, car-napping his mobility scooter, she escapes from the protective custody of her family…

If it was created with a different set of sensibilities, Thelma could’ve easily been a cheap shot at seniors (and a forgettable experience). Imagine a sitcom-style movie with stale gags about how oldies can lose their marbles, their temper, or their bladder control. A film built around a character that’s there purely to be laughed at. Instead, we’re laughing with Thelma Post, and at the assumptions and…