Cannes: Scarlett Johansson's ‘Eleanor the Great' scores praise and Oscar buzz for June Squibb

Yahoo

20-05-2025

Jennifer Lawrence isn't the only Best Actress hopeful generating Oscar buzz at the Cannes Film Festival.
On Tuesday, Sony Pictures Classics premiered Eleanor the Great, Scarlett Johansson's directorial debut with June Squibb in the lead role. Truth be told, the awards campaign for Squibb began months ago, when Thelma Star and Johansson presented together at the Academy Awards.
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So while the reviews for Eleanor the Great were largely mixed, it comes as little surprise that Squibb has been deemed innocent of its flaws.
'June Squibb is a pure joy from start to finish, delivering the finest performance of her career, making audiences laugh out loud one moment and breaking their hearts the next,' Next Best Picture's Matt Neglia wrote on social media.
'It's not every day that a 95-year-old gets a standing ovation at Cannes. Here's June Squibb, the lead of Scarlett Johansson's directorial debut Eleanor the Great, soaking up that love,' wrote New York Times reporter Kyle Buchanan.
Written by Tory Kamen, Eleanor the Great focuses on the titular Eleanor (Squibb), who moves to New York from Florida after the death of her best friend and roommate, Bessie, a Holocaust survivor. As the reviews allude to, the story takes a turn when Eleanor finds herself sitting in a Holocaust survivors' support group and proceeds to share Bessie's story as her own. Complications ensue.
Thanks to Thelma, Squibb was a fringe contender for Best Actress this year, and the pundit class and Squibb's fans hope Eleanor the Great might push her into the Oscar race as a nominee next year. Sony Pictures Classics has an enviable track record in scoring unlikely acting bids, including recent nominees Fernanda Torres, Bill Nighy, Antonio Banderas, and Penelope Cruz. If she is nominated, Squibb would make history as the oldest acting nominee ever.
Read on for reviews of Eleanor the Great.
Owen Gleiberman, Variety: 'The movie is an awards-season wannabe in every sense. It totally plays up Squibb's tart-tongued Alan Arkin-adjacent antique brash aplomb. But in addition, it's an attempt to tap into the poignant underside of a character who uses her wisecracks as weapons. Did I mention that it's also a sentimental Holocaust weeper?'
Kate Erbland, Indiewire: 'It's a little predictable, a little bizarre, a little funny, and very sad, but it's also an ambitious swing at what movies can still be (and what sort of stars can populate them), a message and an idea that we expect will lead both the director and writer into quite fruitful new chapters. It's never too late to try something new, Eleanor and Nina (Erin Kellyman) seem to want to tell us, and even imperfect attempts have real value.'
Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter: 'In her directorial debut Eleanor the Great, Scarlett Johansson tries to shape a portrait of aging, loneliness and grief in America through the misadventures of her eponymous protagonist, played by the reliably funny June Squibb (Thelma). You want Eleanor the Great to succeed because of its charming lead and compelling premise (the screenplay is by Tory Kamen), but it struggles to find its groove. The film lurches between comic set pieces and more dramatic beats, and while Johansson proves a competent helmer, it's not enough to overcome some dizzying tonal imbalances. Still, at the very least, Eleanor the Great offers a character-driven break from the glut of sequels, prequels and whatever else studios squeeze out of existing IP. "
Gregory Ellwood, The Playlist: The film is trying to do too much, especially when there is more than enough compelling drama in Eleanor's personal distress. Giving any of this nuance in just over 90 minutes would be challenging for any director. For Johannson, it's even more so. The movie doesn't opt for a slick, commercial sheen, but it needed even a hint of visual candor to elevate the proceedings (SNL short films look more captivating than Eleanor). Perhaps Johannson wanted to be as safe as possible when shooting her first film. Maybe the independent shooting schedule limited their options, but considering the lineage of filmmakers Johansson has worked with over her 25-year career, we dared to expect something more?'
Pete Hammond, Deadline: 'Johansson, working with Tory Kamen's screenplay, keeps this all very delicate and a reminder of those wonderful contained New York City-set movies about the human condition, and with the expertise of her cinematographer Helene Louvart, she really captures the city. The most recent example I can think of a NYC tale like this one was Melissa McCarthy starring in Can You Ever Forgive Me? which was about a writer who started falsifying letters from famous people. That one got a few Oscar nominations, and I wouldn't be surprised to hear a lot about Eleanor the Great during awards season, especially when it comes to Squibb, whose moving performance is simply exquisite; there is no other word for it.'
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian: 'This frankly odd film is misjudged and naive about the implications of its Holocaust theme. Its bland, TV-movie tone of sentimentality fails to accommodate the existential nightmare of the main plot strand, or indeed the subordinate question of when and whether to put your elderly parent in a care home.'
Ben Croll, TheWrap: If Eleanor the Great never quite braids its strands into a truly compelling yarn, there's still pleasure in examining the individual threads. Squibb clearly relishes the chance to cut loose — especially when preparing for her late-in-life bat mitzvah, which delivers the film's most unexpected visual. (Rapping grannies are passé. Let's see one chant the ha'Torah.) And the very text of each Holocaust recollection — often delivered by real-life survivors — lands with renewed urgency. At 40, Johansson belongs to a generation still shaped by direct familial ties to survivors. Today, that already isn't the case. Eleanor the Great recognizes as much, ceding its own coda to a first-person account. Audiences in Cannes walked out knowing little more about Johansson's directorial voice – but they also walked out in tears. The movie star wouldn't have it any other way.'
Ed Potton, The Times U.K.: 'The last of three directorial debuts by big-name actors at Cannes this year, Scarlett Johansson's Eleanor the Great is — unlike Kristen Stewart's more pretentious The Chronology of Water and Harris Dickinson's riskier Urchin — exactly the kind of conventional, performer-led film one would expect from an actor. It also has the jackpot combination of being tear-inducing and laugh-out-loud funny.'
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