In Grandma, teenager Sage (Julia Garner) asks her grandmother Elle Reid (Lily Tomlin) for help getting money for an abortion.
"I like being old," says Elle (Lily Tomlin), a grieving, misanthropic has-been poet wallowing in her sunset years. "Young people are stupid." But while it's true that her own granddaughter, the pregnant, teenaged Sage (Julia Garner), has never heard of The Feminine Mystique, Elle has to admit she has no idea who the X-Men character Mystique is: Each generation has its blind spots.
As the titular grandma who's so much more than a grandmother, Tomlin makes a full, Oscar-worthy meal of the magnificently flawed Elle, as she tools around town with Sage in a '55 Dodge Royal (Tomlin's own classic ride), hitting up friends and ancient acquaintances for cash for an abortion.
Writer-director Paul Weitz turns in a generous, handcrafted piece in which everyone shines.
Simon Houpt