From her decades on Broadway going back to the 1950s, through to almost a half-century of films, including her celebrated turn in Alexander Payne’s 2014 Nebraska, June Squibb has steadily crafted numerous roles, employing her trademark affability buttressed with a dash of sardonic wit. Her latest role is of the titular character in Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut, Eleanor the Great, a moving, at times misguided look at what happens when one tells lies in order to highlight greater truths. Based on Tony Kamen’s screenplay, Johansson crafts a straightforward yet effective telling of Eleanor’s story, bolstered entirely by the charisma of Squibb’s performance. Without the playfulness and dramatic range of this fine actress, the messy storyline would surely collapse, and it’s a credit to all involved that it succeeds as well as it does.
June Squibb Is What Makes Eleanor So Great

Image Via Sony Pictures Classics

The story follows Eleanor Morgenstein, a Florida resident with a flair for taking a stand for those closest to her, even if that involves the humiliation of a gormless store clerk. She lives with her best friend Bessie Stern (Rita Zohar), a thick-accented Holocaust survivor who drops enough mutterings of “oy vey” to practically devolve into stereotype. When her dear friend passes away, Eleanor moves back to her native New York to spend time with her daughter Lisa (Jessica Hecht) and grandson (Will Price). Lisa is divorced and raising her kid while trying to navigate the needs of her irascible mother, newly returned from her Florida perch. As a way of getting her out of the house, Lisa enrolls her mother at a singing session at the local Jewish community center. Once there, the Broadway belting doesn’t manage to captivate, and Eleanor accidentally finds herself swept into an intimate discussion group complete with snacks.
It’s here that the entire film relies upon a suspension of disbelief and acceptance of the complex character of Eleanor, for if this part doesn’t work, the entire edifice collapses. For this isn’t simply any group of friends in a circle having a chat, this is a survivors group, a set of individuals gathered to express the inexpressible and tell the truth about the horrors they witnessed in their childhood. Nina (Erin Kellyman), a young guest at the discussion group who recently lost her mother, is there on behalf of an NYU journalism course, looking for stories to amplify. Her father, Roger (Chiwetel Ejiofor), is a charismatic TV news personality, and it’s one way of her connecting with her otherwise closed-off father, who has been unable to even speak the name of his late wife since her sudden passing.
The two women with ages separated by decades develop a friendship, and as things go by, the lies become bigger and bigger as more of Bessie’s life is told in place of Eleanor’s own experience. Eleanor introduces Nina to shul, watching as a young girl sings at her Bat Mitzvah service. The event sparks the desire to connect to the faith even further, supposedly in the context that the war prevented her from celebrating her own Bat Mitzvah. When given her Torah portion to read, the affable rabbi assigns the story of Jacob and Esau, a tale where obfuscation is inherent, baked into the patriarch’s own story that served a greater purpose.
The “Ick” Factor at the Heart of ‘Eleanor The Great’

Image Via Sony Pictures Classics

Now, a brief aside about the entire conceit of the film: Given all that’s transpiring in the world, a story about the falsification of one’s connection to the Holocaust is, on the face of it, abhorrent, no matter the circumstances. In a time of post-truth and fake news, with revisionist history lessons being consumed on social media and the vilest conspiracies accepted as fact, there’s a severe ick factor when even a well-meaning 94-year-old wanting to keep the stories of her late friend alive adopts narratives not of her own history. The manipulation of facts and adoption of someone else’s suffering for one’s own betterment is the stuff of a horror film, not a light dramedy, and many will be immediately offended by the very idea of telling such a story.

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However, to simply dismiss the film or assume that these murky questions aren’t at the heart of Kamen’s script and Johansson’s telling would be to miss the point entirely. We’re not at any point to find Eleanor’s behaviour acceptable, merely to understand her own humanity and how these decisions were made. And while things are tied up nicely in ways most will find cathartic, there’s still plenty here to illustrate that this seemingly repulsive premise is indeed a rich one to mine for a compelling story.
Scarlett Johansson’s Directorial Debut Is Impressive

Imagw Via Cannes Film Festival

For those willing to accept the conceit, the end result is a quite charming and emotionally rich film. There are obvious cinematic allusions to the likes of Harold and Maude (itself one of the greatest and most subtle films ever made about the complex reaction of those who survived the Shoah), and the repartee between Eleanor and those who surround her is often infectious. Squibb truly does shine, both at her most acerbic and most vulnerable, and if this is nothing more than a further showcase of her talents, then, dayenu! (“It would have been enough.”)
Ejiofor is always extraordinary, giving his all to elevate what’s really an underbaked character. Kellyman does well to thrive in the spotlight, despite the limitations of her own character’s construction. The naiveté of the student is buttressed by the very real understanding that only a monster would ever lie about such testimony, and it’s this balance between wanting to believe and needing to do the work to properly accept things in the larger context that is raised but never deeply explored in the film.
There’s a sense throughout that the script has dug itself too deep a moral hole to escape without needing to bend things even further, and to its credit, it comes as close as possible to making sense of the situation while still laying bare the unacceptability of Eleanor’s behaviour. There’s a patience for her pain that Eleanor doesn’t always extend to others, be they a shop clerk or her own daughter, and it’s thanks to Squibb’s generous performance that the protagonist comes across as sweet yet misguided rather than selfish and delusional.
Eleanor the Great may not always live up to the hyperbole of the title, but it’s still worth admiring. Johansson, herself a fairly spectacular performer, elicits warm and complex performances from her ensemble, led by Squibb. The camera work is satisfactory, filming the New York locales in a slightly prosaic way that speaks to the straightforward nature of the locales. This is an emotional ride for all involved, and for audiences willing to stomach some of the baked-in contradictions, to celebrate an iconic actress still in full command of her talent, and to admire a megastar’s turn behind the camera, there’s quite a bit here that truly is pretty great.
Eleanor the Great had its world premiere at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section.

Eleanor the Great

The ensemble shine sin this morally complex tale filled with laughter and tears.

Release Date

May 20, 2025

Runtime

98 Minutes

Writers

Tory Kamen

Pros & Cons

Fantastic performance by June Squibb.
Emotionally rich story line full of laugh and tears.
Strong directorial debut by Scarlett Johansson.

Navigating murky moral waters, not always successfully.