Squibb leads “Eleanor the Great,” only the second starring role for the 95-year-old actor in a performance that audibly moved the film festival crowd.

Squibb has become the female Alan Arkin. She's 95 years old, but onscreen she delivers her zingers with the crack timing of an old person whose perception of the world is ageless in its bombs-away, truth-telling joy.

In her directorial debut Eleanor the Great, Scarlett Johansson tries to shape a portrait of aging, loneliness and grief in America through the misadventures of her eponymous protagonist, played by the reliably funny June Squibb (Thelma).