Review of Grandma (2015) by Richard P — 27 Jan 2016

This film is way too eager to wrap up all its story lines as cleanly and quickly as possible and that's unfortunate because there was too much to tell and the filmmakers haven't exhausted even a small portion of possibilities created by these characters, above all by the cocky, bossy, anti-dogmatic, anti-pragmatic, no-nonsense, don't-fuck-with-me free spirit, Elle Reid.

Yeah, she's a bit of an indie cliché but Lily Tomlin is on steroids here and I loved the turn the character took in the final act (if only they had the balls to go deeper in that particular story line, they could have come up with something great).

So at the end of the movie, we have four characters in constant conflicts with each other and they suddenly find ways to resolve the conflicts but if you ask me how we came to that resolution, all I could come up with would be: by a twisted version of divine intervention.

One of the conflicts (between Elle and her lover of a year and a half, Olivia) is your typical indie filler. It takes too much time, it contributes little to the overall narrative, but it's kinda cool and it even works somehow, mostly thanks to the two terrific, underused actresses portraying Elle and Olivia (Judy Greer always does so much with so little).

And that's too bad, because the film is fun. It's affectionate and smart, but it never ever makes a bold storytelling choice. The actors are bold, yeah, once again - Lily Tomlin, you're a goddess, but the writing, the writing needs work.

Actually, starting from scratch would be a good idea. End of rant.