Josh Margolin’s Thelma is based on an episode in the life of his now-103-year-old grandmother, Thelma Post, when she was 93.

Thelma was the widow of director Ted Post (Hang ‘em High, Magnum Force). She’s played in the film by June Squibb who made her Broadway debut as one of the strippers in the original 1959 production of Gypsy who later received an Oscar nomination for 2013’s Nebraska. This film marks the 94-year-old actress’ debut in a starring role.

Squibb performs most of her own stunts as the feisty grandmother who is swindled in one of those all-too-frequent scams in which the caller convinces an elderly victim to turn over money that can’t be traced and therefore can’t be gotten back. Thelma will have none of that.

When the police tell her there is nothing they can do, she finds the mailing address of the money she sent on a piece of paper that she had thrown out and sets out to get her money back by stealing a gun from a senile friend and a scooter from another elderly, albeit still with-it friend played by the late Richard Roundtree (Shaft). He catches on to her scheme and joins her to the consternation of her daughter (Parker Posey) and son-in-law (Clark Gregg) and the confusion of her 24-year-old grandson (Fred Heckinger) who nevertheless helps her as best he can. A totally unrecognizable Malcolm McDowall plays the thief whose grandson was the caller pretending to be her grandson.

The film itself is a mixed bag – sillier than it needs to be with mostly clichéd characters, but with its heart in the right place and bravura performances by both Squibb and Roundtree who died three months before the film’s world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.

The film is available on Blu-ray and standard DVD from Magnolia. Extras include interviews with Squibb and Roundtree.

Now available on 4KUHD, standard Blu-ray and DVD, and soon to be streaming are two of the year’s biggest hits, Twisters and Deadpool & Wolverine.

The former is a well-made if forgettable actioner with great special effects but poor character development despite an ingratiating cast led by Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell that is unrelated to 1995’s Twister except that they are both about tornadoes. There are no flying cows in this one.

The latter is an intolerable piece of trash that sullies the reputation of Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool character and Hugh Jackman’s X-Men character who was given an unforgettable sendoff in 2017’s Logan. Digging him up for this thing is unpardonable.

This week’s best 4K UHD package is Columbia Classics Volume 5 collection featuring 1949’s All the King’s Men, 1954’s On the Waterfront, 1966’s A Man for All Seasons, 1982’s Tootsie, 1993’s The Age of Innocence, and 2019’s Little Women, all accompanied by Blu-ray discs featuring numerous extras.

Robert Rossen’s All the King’s Men won Oscars for Best Picture, Actor Broderick Crawford, and Supporting Actress Mercedes McCambridge in her film debut. Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, Crawford plays Willie Stark, a corrupt politician based on Louisiana’s Huey Long. McCambridge is his campaign consultant turned secretary and part-time lover. The film also features strong performances from John Ireland, Oscar nominated as a crusading reporter; Joanne Dru as his girlfriend, Stark’s latest conquest; John Derek as Stark’s crippled son; and Anne Seymour as his long-suffering wife.

Oscar-nominated director Rossen soon suffered under the blacklist but made a triumphant return with 1961’s The Hustler.

Elia Kazan’s On the Waterfront won eight Oscars including Best Picture, Director, Actor Marlon Brando as the witness to a mob murder, and Supporting Actress Eva Marie Saint as the sister of the murder victim. Lee J. Cobb as the mob boss, Karl Malden as the waterfront priest, and Rod Steiger as Brando’s brother were all nominated for Best Supporting Actor, losing to Edmond O’Brien in The Barefoot Contessa.

The classic film was shot at the Academy aspect ratio of 1.37:1 in which it was exhibited in most theatres. It was modified for widescreen and was exhibited in a few theaters at 1.66:1 and 1.85:1. Separate 4K discs of all three aspect ratios are included in the set.

Fred Zinnemann’s A Man for All Seasons won six Oscars including Best Picture, Director, and Actor Paul Scofield as St. Sir Thomas More whose refusal to support Henry VIII’s intent to divorce first wife Catherine of Aragon to marry Anne Boleyn led to the respected scholar and statesman’s eventual condemnation and beheading. Wendy Hiller as More’s devoted wife, and Robert Shaw as Henry VIII were nominated for their bravura performances.

Extras include a documentary on the life of the saint.

Sydney Pollack’s Tootsie was nominated for ten Oscars and won one for Best Supporting Actress Jessica Lange as a naïve actress who doesn’t know her friend Dustin Hoffman is really a man pretending to be a woman to advance his acting career. Hoffman was nominated for Best Actor and Teri Garr was nominated for Best Supporting Actress as his former girlfriend. Pollack, who also has a supporting role as Hoffman’s agent, was nominated for his direction of this classic comedy.

Martin Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence was nominated for five Oscars and won one for Best Costume Design. Scorsese was nominated for his screenplay with co-writer Jay Cocks, not for his direction of the third screen version of Edith Wharton’s 1920 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Winona Ryder were starred with Ryder as Day-Lewis’ fiancée and eventual wife nominated for Best Supporting Actress. Day-Lewis was nominated for Best Actor for In the Name of the Father instead.

Greta Gerwig’s Little Women was nominated for six Oscars and won one for Best Costume Design. Louisa May Alcott’s oft-filmed classic is given a feminist spin by Gerwig who was nominated for her screenplay but not her direction. Saoirse Ronan received her fourth Oscar nomination, her third in a lead role, for her portrayal of aspiring writer Jo and Florence Pugh was nominated for her portrayal of Amy. Emma Watson was Meg, Eliza Scanlan was Beth, Timothée Chalamet was Laurie, Laura Dern was Marmee, and Meryl Streep was Aunt March.

This is the only one of the six films with extras on the 4K disc.

Included in the package is a bonus 4K disc with five obscure silent films made between 1924 and 1928: The Price She Paid, Ladies of Leisure, The Belle of Broadway, The Desert Bride, and The Scarlet Lady.

Happy viewing.