Oscar-nominated actress June Squibb excels with a standout performance in Scarlett Johansson’s feature directorial debut, Eleanor the Great.

Eleanor Morgenstein (June Squibb) is a spirited 94-year-old whose storytelling manages to take on a life of its own. After the loss of her longtime friend and roommate Bessie Stern (Rita Zohar), Eleanor moves from Florida to New York City to live with her daughter Lisa (Jessica Hecht) and grandson Max (Will Price), hoping to reconnect with family. Instead, she feels overlooked and disconnected, until she stumbles into a Holocaust survivors support group at the Manhattan Jewish Community Center and sparks unexpected attention when her tale draws notice.

Eleanor’s story catches the interest of Nina (Erin Kellyman), a young journalism student observing the support group on that fateful day and eager for mentorship, drawing Eleanor into unforeseen consequences. When the situation escalates, she must confront the reality of her actions. Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut explores aging, family, loss, and the blurred line between truth and deception, weaving a poignant narrative about friendship, history, and the complexities of human connection.

After inviting Nina to join her at Congregation Rodeph Shalom, Eleanor makes the bold choice to have a Bat Mitzvah late in life. The rabbi assigns her Toldot, the parshah recounting Jacob and Esau’s story of deception. Whether ironic or not, it’s impossible to ignore the parallel—Eleanor deceives Nina and the survivors much as Jacob once misled his father, Isaac.

Screenwriter Tory Kamen draws on personal experience, inspired by her 95-year-old grandmother who made the same “reverse” move from Florida back to New York. I stress reverse because, in Jewish humor if not in Jewish law, once you reach a certain age, moving to Florida is the law. Eleanor the Great is unmistakably a New York film, though not a glossy, tourist-oriented one. The closest it comes is a nostalgic sequence at Coney Island.

Eleanor the Great also raises the pressing question of who will carry Holocaust stories forward as survivors pass away. Bessie entrusted Eleanor with her memories—including the secret of her brother—making Eleanor responsible for preserving a history never before spoken aloud. With survivors dwindling each year, remembrance increasingly relies on museums, books, and documentaries. As fewer Auschwitz survivors are able to attend liberation anniversaries, the urgency of this responsibility comes into sharper focus.

Casting choices underline that urgency. Many of the Eleanor the Great’s key roles are filled by Jewish actors, including Squibb, Hecht, and Zohar. Zohar, who portrays Bessie, was herself born in a concentration camp, making her a Holocaust survivor in real life as well as on screen. I couldn’t confirm whether Erin Kellyman is Jewish—her character is written as the daughter of a Jewish mother, which traditionally conveys Jewish identity—but authenticity is evident in how survivors themselves are cast as support group members. That decision grounds the film in truth.

Squibb’s performance is the heart of Eleanor the Great. After decades of stage and screen work—Broadway debut in 1959, film debut in 1990—it took until Nebraska for her Oscar-nominated turn to open doors to richer opportunities. Following Thelma, this film gives her another lead role worthy of her sharp wit. Few actresses could land Eleanor’s biting one-liners with the same mix of warmth and steel.

Johansson, in her directorial debut, deserves credit for insisting that Holocaust survivors play survivors in Eleanor the Great. Their presence during the two-day shoot makes the group scenes resonate with authenticity. The Holocaust is never trivialized. Instead, the drama comes from Eleanor allowing her fabrication to linger too long, driven not by malice but by longing—for her friend, for memory, for meaning. While I wouldn’t personally endorse appropriating someone else’s lived trauma, I understand why Eleanor clings to Bessie’s story. Whether that’s forgivable remains an open question.

At its core, Eleanor the Great is about grief. It’s the force that brings Eleanor, from the Silent Generation, and Nina, from Gen Z, into one another’s orbit. Their bond grows out of loss, while Nina’s father Roger (Chiwetel Ejiofor) quietly struggles with his own grief, blind to how it shapes his daughter’s choices. Nobody said grieving was simple, and the film’s strength lies in showing how it binds people across generations in complicated, sometimes troubling ways.

As Holocaust survivors pass away, films like Eleanor the Great remind us of the responsibility to keep their voices heard. Through Eleanor’s flawed but heartfelt attempts to hold on to her friend’s story, the film becomes a meditation on truth, memory, and the weight of history. It’s a timely, bittersweet debut from Scarlett Johansson, anchored by June Squibb in a role that feels like both a culmination and a triumph.

DIRECTOR: Scarlett Johansson
SCREENWRITER: Tory Kamen
CAST: June Squibb, Erin Kellyman, Jessica Hecht, Rita Zohar, and Chiwetel Ejiofor

Eleanor the Great holds its North American premiere during the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival in the Gala Presentations program. Sony Pictures Classics will release the film on September 26, 2025. Grade: 4/5

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