Grandma

In her first leading role since 1988, Lily Tomlin triumphantly blows the doors off this calm yet controversial drama from About a Boy director Paul Weitz. As poet and academic Elle Reid, she must help her 18-year-old granddaughter Sage (Julia Garner) who is, in the old fashioned sense, "in trouble". Sage feels she can't ask her corporate executive mother (Marcia Gay Harden) for help and Elle thinks she knows why, beginning a process of unlocking skeletons from the family closet. The duo churn up Elle's past, too, as they tap acquaintances for the $630 needed for an abortion, including Elle's controlling ex Karl (Sam Elliott in an exceptional performance). Sexual politics, along with themes of loss and mourning mingle with fresh lessons and spiky laughs making Grandma at turns tender, pithy and abrupt. A story about intergenerational bonding in a non-icky way, it's not for the whole family, but it is one hell of a ride for anyone with a lot of miles on the biological clock.