Julianne Moore in Gloria (A24)

It’s not every day that a writer/director has the opportunity to remake a film only a few years after the original’s success. Sebastián Lelio’s Gloria only came out in 2013. Made in Chile, it starred Paulina García and was that country’s Oscar submission for best foreign language film. Now Lelio transplants his story to the United States, settling it in Los Angeles, away from Hollywood and more toward the downtown cubicle culture. The only crucial modification between the two movies is in the casting of the title character.

The original version featured an actress who could pass as a credible stand-in for a middle-class Everywoman, while the other stars an actress who happens to be a big-time movie star, Julianne Moore. Yet, that is not to the new film’s detriment. It works because of its exactness and simplicity. Although Moore can’t quite pass as an overlooked wallflower as the scenario calls for—yes, movie stars are different than everyday folk—she strips the character down to its core. Still, Moore radiates star power even while wearing, or hiding behind, big LensCrafters glasses, yet her Gloria is vain-free and her performance, like García’s, is restrained yet scrutable.

Divorced for 12 years, Gloria hits the single scene for the over-50 set, dancing to Earth Wind & Fire and Gloria Gaynor on a crowded dance floor. In fact, most of the soundtrack is a throwback to the 1970s and ’80s. Privately in her car, Gloria belts out a schmaltzy ballad, presumably from her teenage years—Air Supply’s “All Out of Love”—and rocks out to Olivia Newton-John’s “A Little Bit of Love.” There is no indie cred to be found at all; it’s all top 40. The only song selection that is too on-the-nose is Gilbert O’Sullivan’s crying-in-one’s-beer ballad “Alone Again (Naturally),” which at one point matches Gloria’s dejected mood.

Despite the soundtrack, Gloria is not living in the past. She looks forward, and does so independently. She’s involved with her family, but up to a point: her two grown children have branched out, raising or starting a family. Unlike a lot of Hollywood movies, this heroine is not surrounded by her friends. It could be argued that Gloria shares most of her unguarded moments with a friendly hairless cat that appears out of nowhere and makes himself home in her apartment.

But she’s no cat lady. In fact, what makes this portrait stand out from most American films about older women is Gloria’s forthright sexuality. She owns it. She’s not waiting to get her groove back; she already has it. Because her sex drive has not waned or is played for laughs, the overall tone is removed from, say, Something’s Gotta Give (2003), where Diane Keaton, playing a 60-something woman involved in relationship with a younger man, is briefly seen completely in the buff for a brief second, a moment played for laughs. If anyone were to walk in on Gloria while she was disrobed, it’s doubtful that she would cover herself up or blush. Yet one could quibble that only a movie star could look so good, considering Gloria’s favorite adult beverage is a martini, which she drinks plenty of, and she has never gone to yoga class before, though she’s noticeably toned.

The movie turns into a clear-eyed comedy of manners, because what Gloria seeks, besides a sexual connection, is respect from the new man in her life, Arnold (John Turturro), who has been divorced only for one year. She meets him at the disco and goes home with him that night, perhaps because he is soft-spoken and seemingly vulnerable (at six feet-something, too).

One gets the sense that she is particular with whom she hooks up with and doesn’t do small talk well. After Arnold asks her for her name, she pauses, as though she’s making a decision on whether to actually take the plunge. After he spends the night at her place, Arnold surprises her, calling soon after—their meeting won’t be a one-night stand, after all—and they begin dating. However, he lies right in front of her. Through his phone conversation with one of his grown-up, and quite needy, daughters, she becomes aware that he’s been hiding her from his family and hasn’t really changed his priorities since his divorce. His role in his family remains as the worrier and caretaker, and this becomes a stumbling block. However, some viewers may have a hard time suspending their disbelief that anyone would be embarrassed or awkward to be seen dating Moore’s Gloria. Many would fight for this bragging right.

The new film has brisker pace than its predecessor, and with alterations here and there, Gloria Bell ends on the same note, or rather notes: Laura Branigan’s 1982 Euro disco hit “Gloria.” (Those familiar with the ’80s shouldn’t be surprised at all by its appearance on the soundtrack.) Though the lyrics are made up of words of warning for a devil-may-care heartbreaker, here it becomes a well-earned power anthem, the scene the story line has been waiting for: to let loose with a “you go girl” moment.