Hélène Louvart

Scarlett Johansson makes her feature film directing debut with Eleanor the Great, a prickly character study, starring 95 year-old June Squibb. Squibb plays grieving Eleanor Morgenstein who suffers the devastating loss of her best friend Bessie, causing her to relocate from Florida to New York City to live with her overly-stressed adult daughter and unreliable grandson Looking for company at the local Jewish Community Center, Eleanor mistakenly wanders into a Holocaust support group, where she impulsively tells a tale that brings her a precarious level of attention that she did not expect.

June Squibb is a national treasure. At the age of 95, the actress is still full of surprises – as well as award-worthy performances like the one she gives in Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut, Eleanor the Great. Eleanor the Great is both hilarious and heartbreaking. Tory Kamen’s screenplay is a fresh take on a Holocaust story, with plenty of laughs, care of Eleanor’s unfiltered mouth. Although there are moments in the film that require some suspension of disbelief, the characters (and the actors portraying them) are so engaging, it’s easy to just go along for the ride.

Director Scarlett Johansson Johansson brings together themes of aging, family, loss, deception, truth vs reality and, most of all, friendship. It’s refreshing she’s willing to highlight older persons and their life struggles, in turn giving top billing to mature actors who have a dearth of meaty roles to choose from. June Squibb and Rita Zohar, who plays her best friend Bessie, are exceptional.

Scarlett Johansson makes a bold feature directing debut with Eleanor the Great, a prickly, poignant dramedy anchored by June Squibb in a role that defies the usual saintly-bubbie mold. It’s a film about grief, memory, and the dangerous comfort of borrowed stories. This is an uneasy premise given how severe the “white lie” is that Eleanor tells, yet Johansson tackles it with surprising assurance as a visual storyteller.