Tomlin brilliant as acerbic 'Grandma' - Chron.com
Lily Tomlin - comedian, activist, national treasure and natural wonder - deftly balances a dazzling star turn and deeply felt character study in "Grandma. Tomlin plays Elle Reid, a feminist poet and retired college professor whose comfortably secluded life is momentarily upended by a visit from her granddaughter, Sage (Julia Garner). The 18-year-old has discovered that she's pregnant, and she has an appointment for a termination later that day. She needs $600 by the afternoon, and her grandmother is the only friend she can turn to. "Grandma" follows the two women as they call on friends and acquaintances throughout Los Angeles, a classic journey made all the more schematic by the fact... Still mired in the spiky, angry slough of grief, Elle refuses to give Sage any cuddly reassurance in the face of her plight. "It's nothing to dance a jig about," she snaps, when Sage seeks a comforting word. Later, when she takes her granddaughter to a free women's health care clinic, only to discover it's become an upscale cafe, she goes into a coffee-spilling tirade. There's an amusing subtext having to do with the morphology of feminism over the past 40 years: When Elle tries to sell a first-edition Betty Friedan book at a women's bookstore, Sage thinks "The Feminine Mystique" is a character from the X-Men. Source: www.chron.com
