AARP Hearing Center
So far in 2024, folks over the age of 50 are basking in the spotlight on the big screen. In the action-packed Thelma, leading lady June Squibb, 94, grabs her chance to be a Tom Cruise-style action hero, fighting injustice on a scooter on the mean streets of Los Angeles. In Ghostlight, perpetual supporting actor Keith Kupferer, 59, finally gets to play a leading man — and take a turn playing Romeo, too. And Mads Mikkelsen, 58, cuts a dashing figure on horseback, proving once again that he’s a full-blown old-fashioned romantic movie star in the period adventure The Promised Land. From drama to comedy and back, here are our picks of the best movies released in the U.S. this year, January to the end of June.
Thelma
Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominee June Squibb, 94, finally gets to be a leading lady in an action comedy about a needlepointing senior boggled by the world of computers and lonely in the wake of her husband’s death. When Thelma gets a scam phone call — the kind where a young man impersonates her grandson in peril and another urges her to send $10,000 cash to a P.O. box to rescue him — she complies. Soon after, she realizes her mistake, and the determined grandmother heads on an odyssey across Los Angeles to reclaim her dough. Helped by her grandson and an old friend, Ben (the late Richard Roundtree), she embarks on a stunt-filled action adventure that humanely and humorously looks at long life and its perils and delights. The movie is an anthem to the power of grandma grit in the face of the villains who prey on them — not something we frequently see on the big screen. Rated PG-13.
The Bikeriders
With a nod to 1969 biker classic Easy Rider, this crime drama, based on a 1967 photo book, follows the rise and fall of a blue-collar Midwestern motorcycle gang, the Vandals. Tom Hardy is leader of the pack Johnny, while Elvis’s Austin Butler is handsome-devil rebel without a cause Benny. The narrator is Kathy (that marvelous chameleon Jodie Comer), a woman who never saw herself becoming a biker chick until she set her eyes on Benny. It’s love at first ride, until the biker scene expands and devolves. As the 60s flow into the 70s, and beers and shots become hard drugs, the landscape for these asphalt cowboys changes. The beautifully-directed-and-written film is carried along on the charisma of the three stars, finding the human drama beneath the leather jackets and avoiding sensationalism despite the knives-and-fists brawling of the pack. Rated R.
Ghostlight
Art imitates life imitates theater in this profoundly moving family drama. A Midwestern family (played by real-life Chicago theater family Keith Kupferer, 59, Tara Mallen, 59, and Katherine Mallen Kupferer) experiences a life-altering tragedy — the suicide of their teen son and brother. The trio process their grief differently, but it’s the angry construction worker who slowly finds access to his emotions, and empathy for his son, while joining the cast of a community theater production of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The spunky awards contender Dolly De Leon, 55, decimates sentimentality while playing Juliet to the father’s Romeo. The healing powers of creativity, community and the bard make for a powerful and unique film. Rated R.
You Might Also Like
Favorite Streaming Shows of 2024
From the historical romance hit ‘Bridgerton’ to the comedy ‘Hacks,’ here are our top picks of the first half of the year
Favorite Books of 2024
Our books editor shares her top pick and nine other fiction and nonfiction standouts of the first half of the year
Favorite Reality Shows of 2024
‘Survivor,’ ‘The Traitors’ and ‘The Bachelor’ come out on top; see what else made our list for the first half of the year
Recommended for You