In “Grandma,” Lily Tomlin plays misanthropic widow Elle who embarks on a whirlwind tour of the past in a single day when her granddaughter Sage (Julia Garner) arrives on her doorstep pregnant, broke, and in need of an abortion. Having broken up with her girlfriend (Judy Greer) that morning by refusing to express her clearly deep feelings and recently destroyed all of her credit cards to prove a point, Elle, too is broke. So they hatch a plan to acquire the $600 needed to pay for the procedure that Sage has scheduled for that afternoon. Because Elle has alienated herself from pretty much everyone with her unfiltered, nasty remarks, it’s fairly desperate times. But mostly, it’s a painfully obvious script contrivance to allow us a tour down memory lane, offering backstory in neon lights so we can understand why helping her granddaughter, whom she rarely talks to, suddenly becomes so important. Tomlin is terrific here as a woman clearly living with pain and whose reflex is to lash out. As the film’s only remotely developed …![]()
