I first noticed who June Squibb was when she co-starred in Nebraska the Alexander Payne film from 2013. She had an unexpected wit and sarcastic nature to her character. Since then, I’ve seen her in Thelma, where her character was the victim of a cyber hacking scam. Ever since the first time I saw her and now she’s done a lot of small character roles, in Eleanor the Great she is the star of the film. She has to hold every scene together. As a senior citizen, in her 90s, that was pretty impressive. I was once again floored by how she controls the screen. She has a gift unbecoming of someone of her age and stature.

Eleanor Morganstein (June Squibb) is an older adult citizen who lives with her close friend Bessie (Rita Zohar) who is a holocaust survivor, at a retirement community in Florida, but when her friend unexpectedly passes away she reluctantly moves to New York City to live with her daughter and nephew. After being left alone, she explores the city by going into a holocaust survivors group and starts to share Bessie’s story as her own.This enables her to strike up an unlikely friendship with a nineteen year old college student Nina (Erin Kellyman). They start to become friends, and Eleanor uses her recent connection to the young woman to manipulate her in a bad way. 

Squibb is a rare treasure these days for an actress of her age and stature. She is able to create a wit and charm about herself that is funny. She creates wise retorts with whomever she’s opposite of on screen. It’s effortless for her. All her experience on the Broadway Stage, television, and in film have garnered her the ability to say whatever she wants, whether it’s in the script or not. She is great at ad-libbing like a seasoned stand-up comedian or sketch comedy actor. She makes it look so effortless that it’s funny. I don’t know how much longer she’s going to act for, but as long as audiences still can watch her do her thing, we are the beneficiaries of all her wonderful talents.

Erin Kellyman is a young actress who I’ve seen before in Solo: A Star Wars Story, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, and most recently in Blitz the WWII film from dirrctor Steve McQueen. She is able to control the screen in a fascinating way. Her look is different, which allows her to mold into various roles. Here, she plays a college student who is auditing a holocaust survivors meeting to get a story for her journalism class. The odd thing is her father, played by Chiwetal Edjifor, is a famous newscaster that the Quibb and Zohar characters are enamored with. This adds an interesting dynamic to this story. One that has unexpected consequences. Kellyman is good opposite Squibb and Edjifor, though. It would be easy for her to be overshadowed by the charm and wit of these actors of this stature, but she’s not. She holds her own in this great company.

Scarlet Johansson is an actress who has done it all in her career, which started as a child actress. She’s done a lot of action films, holding her own in the MCU as Natasha Romanoff, aka the Black Widow. She’s done comedy in films like Don Jon, played the voice of an AI companion in Her, and done her fair share of indie films with Lost In Translation and Under the Skin. She has worked with a lot of different kinds of directors in her career, such as Sophia Coppola, the Russo Brothers, Joe and Anthony, Robert Redford, Woody Allen and Spike Jonze to name a handful. It only makes sense that she would learn from these men and a woman and eventually sit in the directors chair herself someday. That day has come sooner than I’d expected, though. Eleanor the Great is her directorial debut, and it’s quite a delightful film at times but also a film that has a lesson to be learned. Maybe that’s what drew her to this subject matter. Who knows? All I know is that it’s a stellar first outing for this woman who’s never directed until now. She’s used everything she’s learned to have a great effect.

I like a movie with a lesson to be learned and a story that is engaging as it is enlightening. This one has all that in spades. Parents can use this film to explain what the consequences of lying are. How far-reaching lying can be. The whole idea of lying was done in good faith because of the reason it was done, but how it was portrayed has been done a few times before in movies in the past. Usually, these types of stories involve kids, not a 94 year old woman. That aside, the lesson is still here in full view. The writer Tory Kamen used a popular trope in movies from the past but does it in an intelligent and creative way.  I genuinely loved how the story came full circle at the beginning of the movie, where a warning of lying was discussed by the Squibb and Zohar characters. 

Eleanor the Great was another great vehicle for Squibb to shine in. She has a knack for taking every role she’s in and making them her own.There was no way I could have seen anybody else play this character. She owns every scene she’s in. Kellyman holds her own opposite this force of nature. Even though Johansson is a first-time director, she has taken everything she’s learned from all the directors she’s worked with and put it to good use in this movie. There is a message to be learned from this story, and hopefully, parents will see the film and talk to their children about the consequences of what lying can be. I genuinely liked this movie, and I hope to see Squibb again soon and that this won’t be the last time Johansson directs a film.  This was a really sweet little film with a great message.

4 stars

Dan Skip Allen