Lily Tomlin Talks Donald Trump, Says Not Enough LGBT Progress in Hollywood

“Grandma” is, instead, a brisk, bittersweet and moving film, rightfully devoted to displaying the singular talent of Lily Tomlin – especially her striking ability to fuse acerbity and crankiness with empathy and humanity, and to find the essential lovability way, way down at the core of an unlikable person.

“Grandma” opens in limited release on Friday. Nobody has measured up since. As the movie starts, Ellie coldly breaks up with her girlfriend (played by Judy Greer) and is met by her granddaughter Sage (Julia Garner) who desperately needs $600 dollars by sundown. With only $43 in the bank, Elle hops into her old two-door Dodge jalopy and they set out to find some money. Olivia burbles on about love, but Elle pays her no mind.

The light-handed pacing belies all that writer-director Paul Weitz packs in: abortion, politics, aging, health care, sexuality, economics and the radical notion that a woman can be the subject of her own life.

The scene with Karl is so cathartic, and Tomlin and Elliott’s chemistry is so intense, that subsequent events the movie has been building toward-our eventual introduction to Sage’s mother, Judy (Marcia Gay Harden, wonderful as an impatient, overcaffeinated superlawyer), and the appointment at the abortion clinic-seem slightly anticlimactic.

When pressed further, Tomlin stated:”I think he’s capable of anything, if it would work for him or profit him or just be of the moment”.

It’s hard to know what drew a power package as smart and beloved as Lily Tomlin to this project. “Just being with Lily, just watching her, even now, is extraordinary”.