'Wicked' Moves Out of 'Moana's Way, 'Beetlejuice 2' To Open Venice Festival as Paramount Gets a Lifeline and More

A (unpaywalled) rave review of 'Thelma' and thoughts on the second trailer for 'Trap' amid newer filmmakers drawing surprising inspiration from M. Night Shyamalan.

In tonight’s “Written in a Hotel” newsletter… 

• Review - Thelma is an affectionate riff on revenge thrillers and the genuine article.

• News - Universal blinks and moves Wicked Part I to November 22. 

• Awards (?) - The 2024 Oscar season begins with… Beetlejuice 2? 

• Trailer - M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap gets a second spoiler-lite (we hope) trailer.  

• News - Skydance may buy Paramount after all? 

Thelma is (kinda-sorta) the action movie of the year! 

If you listen to our Box Office Podcast (and you should, if only for the three other “I am what they grow beyond” box office pundit co-hosts), you’ve heard Lisa Laman lucidly lamenting how Hollywood has spent the 2020s overemphasizing films aimed at older audiences. Some of that’s due to Hollywood’s inability to make new movie stars. Some blame goes to a generation that refuses to let go of its hold on pop culture, so we get (presumed quality aside) Freaky Friday legacy sequels and 63-year-old Eddie Murphy reprising as Axel Foley in a Beverly Hills Cop sequel 30 years after the third installment flopped. Lisa’s right, but forget that. One of the year’s best films is an action comedy starring 94-year-old June Squibs and the late Richard Roundtree. 

We can debate to what extent Magnolia’s Thelma is an “action movie.” Writer/director Josh Margolin plays fair in terms of pacing, structure, and cinematic intent, explicitly inspired by the later Mission: Impossible sequels but playing out like a semi-plausible presentation of its high concept. In her first outright lead role in a 65-year career, Squib plays a widow who gets victimized by a phone scam out of $10,000 and embarks on a quest to get it back. If this sounds like Jason Statham’s The Beekeeper, if the elderly Ms. Parker (Phylicia Rashad) had not taken her own life but rather gone after the bastards herself, you wouldn’t be far off. It’s a gimmick, a wish-fulfillment fantasy inspired by Margolin’s grandmother getting scammed under similar circumstances.  

It’s also a thoughtful, nuanced and compelling character study that’s as much about specific relationships as the gee-whiz notion of our elderly heroine “protecting the hive.” It’s also not just a showcase for Squib but a well-deserved swan song for then-81-year-old Roundtree. He plays one of Thelma’s only surviving friends, who reluctantly gets swept up in her quest for restitution. Beyond scooter-bound chase sequences and (plausible) fisticuffs, Roundtree has lovely chemistry with the Nebraska star and has several wonderful scenes as someone who, unlike his headstrong partner, has begrudgingly accepted his decline and made the best of it. Alongside Louis Gossett Jr.’s swan song in John Krasinski’s IF, it’s a weirdly “good” year for spectacular final performances from legendary Black actors who presumably knew they were rounding third base. 

More surprising is Thelma’s relationship with her kind-hearted but underachieving grandson (Fred Hechinger), who is frustrated by what he isn’t smart enough or motivated enough to do. The two share an obvious kinship on opposite sides of the lifespan. Not unlike Up and The Wendell Baker Story, this film isn’t subtle about how the world stops viewing people as essential or valuable once they reach a certain age and how the elderly can easily see themselves as a burden to their loved ones even while maintaining a certain amount of independence. Both Thelma and Daniel want to show that they can still contribute, improve the lives of those around them and do more than just exist. Both must realize that asking for help isn’t the same as being helpless. 

Thelma doesn’t climax with June Squibb doing martial arts, crashing cars or killing dozens of bad guys. It straddles the line between offering a realistic endgame and giving audiences a finale (featuring Malcolm McDowell in a genre-defying turn) that cashes the check it has written. I’m not going to be the schmuck who declares Thelma “the best action movie of 2024.”. However, it has the sentiment of the genuine article. It is inspired by the Ethan Hunt chronicles, both in terms of action cinema and how the franchise has evolved into a metatextual Tom Cruise autobiography. Hell, maybe I will, since (to heavily paraphrase a key line) what is an action hero if not a determined righteous avenger who – against all odds – makes it from point A to point B in style?