Thelma would have you think it’s about a young woman breaking free of her restrictive religious upbringing. It would have you think it’s a coming of age story about empowerment and independence. And it partly is. But the genius of this quiet thriller is how it decides it’s also going to be something else.
Thelma is a movie that I think is good enough to deserve it’s own thread. Thelma did the film festival circuit during 2017 and it had it’s theatrical release as well in 2017,
The movie is Norwegian so you’ll be doing some subtitle reading if you don’t speak the language.
Poster:
Here is a link to the trailer. although I would really recommend that you avoid the trailer and go into the movie knowing as little about it as possible.
Thelma was also the number one movie of 2018 for a certain Quarter to Three Movie Podcaster.
Would it be worth learning to speak Norwegian , to further enjoy the film?
:D
I enjoyed it a whole heck of a lot by reading the subs. I would be willing to bet that you would get even more enjoyment out of it if you could speak the language.
I’m not much for prequels, but since Thelma and Louise made a bit of a splash when it released this one might be worth making an exception.
It’s available on Hulu.
Is it poor form to say very nice and how dare you?
Over: Let The Right One In
Under: Ex Machina
It’s basically impossible to talk about this without spoilers, and with the caveat that I have yet to watch it multiple times, but I kind of disagree with @tomchick that the movie makes you think it’s going to be one thing and then does another thing.
Certainly not in the way, say, Audition does. It lets you know right away it’s a supernatural film, that there’s something off with Thelma. Now, I’d agree that Thelma thinks she’s in one kind of movie and it turns out she’s in another. But not the viewer.
Anyway, everyone go see this film. It’s amazing.
When I picked it for my best movie of 2018, I knew neither of the other guys on the podcast was going to see it, despite me telling them to. And since that meant there would be no conversation about it, I just wrote up some comments to read. I thought I later posted it as a review, but I guess I didn’t, so here it is now.
SPOILERS:
I can’t imagine how anyone can see what’s coming, but I suppose that’s pretty subjective. My feeling is that you can’t understand parts of the movie until you’ve seen the whole thing. And I don’t mean whether something supernatural is going on. That’s probably one of the least interesting things you could say about the movie! I mean how you’ve been watching a movie in which the father isn’t repressive, but entirely correct, and the heroine isn’t a victim, but a perpetrator who obliterates another woman’s free will. Julia, who isn’t a lesbian and who wouldn’t have loved Thelma, is the real victim here. Along with Thelma’s younger brother. And mother. And certainly father. If you had seen the story from any of their perspectives, it would have been a horror movie.
-Tom
Oh, and for those of you who don’t want to read subtitles, it briefly looked like you were going to get your wish!
I can’t imagine this ever got very far, but if it happens, I bet it stars Chloe Moretz Grace.
-Tom
Fair enough, I may have misunderstood exactly what you were implying on the podcast - obviously you didn’t want to give too much away about the narrative.
SPOILERS, OBVS.
Oh, I certainly agree with that. And it’s a horror movie even from its actual perspective. Re: her mother, I assumed that her being wheelchair bound was a result of something Thelma did, but I may have a missed a point where it was made more explicit. Did I?
After the baby’s death, Thelma’s mother throws herself off a bridge. It’s just one scene, a shot of her barefoot, in the snow, climbing over the railing. By the way, that actress is named Ellen Dorrit Petersen. She’s really good in the Border director’s first movie, Shelley.
-Tom
How do I watch this movie? Is it on any streaming services?
I got it from Cinema Paradiso. Frankly, if you’re intrigued at this point just buy it.
There’s a link in the review. I’ll put it here as well:
-Tom
I just realized that I’ve been confusing this movie with Selma the entire time.
Well, they do both involve bridges, as we’ve learned.
There was no link in the review!
(Also the bit at the bottom of the review, where your STAR RATING goes, just has the word “Thelma”. Is the review text broken a bit?)
The score is whatever Thelma really wants it to be.
There’s an Amazon link with a picture inside that box. You might not see it if you’re running an adblocker or browsing with some funky browser. But it is up there! And if you’re ever looking for where you can find a movie online, this is an excellent resource.
-Tom