A TIFF Movie Opens On September 26, 2025: “Great” is a strong word for Eleanor the Great.
Honestly, as a movie it’s not terrible, nor is it amazing.
Eleanor the Great is fine, it’s acceptable slightly respectable, you can bring it home to mom but it’s unremarkable. It fades from memory before the end credits stop scrolling.
The film’s marketing hook is that it’s Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut. But when you sit down to watch it, there’s nothing particularly “Scarlett Johansson” about it. I’m not sure what I was expecting though. (Tom Hanks has done some directing, we don’t really classify him as a director. Wonder where she goes from here? This was a simple enough story that she could mostly Kevin Smith it up: people are talking here, point the camera there…and I’ma go make a sandwich.)
Maybe that’s the problem — it’s all too… nice. Johansson seems intent on capturing small, human moments rather than cinematic boldness. Admirable, sure, but in the end, Eleanor the Great feels like it’s chasing the human condition without ever locating its soul.
June Squibb, however, has her soul on full display. At 95, she’s a Golden Girl — a salty, sharp senior who still carries herself with curiosity. And sass. So much sass. Her Eleanor has recently relocated to New York City, a place that chews up even the young and restless. At the Manhattan Jewish Community Center, she quickly befriends a group of Holocaust survivours. Lost between loneliness and empathy, Eleanor begins passing off her best friend Bessie’s tragic life story as her own.
It’s an odd choice — not a malicious lie, more of a misguided search for meaningful connection. The lie snowballs—as good lies do—but instead of turning into a dark satire or crafting cautionary commentary, Johansson’s movie comes off like similar teen movies about lying like Easy A or even Breakfast Club.
It’s disappointing, though. The story clearly desires to be about connection and grief and how we build identity out of stories we tell…especially about the people who are no longer with us but Johansson struggles to thread those grand ideas together.
Still, Squibb goes to work. She impressively carries the slow film with a toughness like she’s been living in New York City this entire time.
Watching her shuffle through scenes, half-lost, half-hopeful, is easily the movie’s highlight.. If Eleanor the Great had trusted her more or Johansson was willing to lose sight of the shore and swim deep the Great in the title coulda have been earned.
Instead, Johansson seems hesitant to let the story get messy. (It really is a teen movie where there is a valid discovery Eleanor has lied about being a Holocaust victim and yet there isn’t a great deal of fallout. Bounty could easily clean up this mess.)
The title promises a triumph, a transformation — a greatness earned. What we see instead is an ordinary woman who tells extraordinary lies to make her life feel bigger. And to keep her dead friend–alive.
In Hollywood as in humanity, it is mostly performance.
Sammy Verdict: You can stream this and it’s fine, no lies. But if you go to see it at the cinema, while not #PantsWorthy, it’s also alright. Not groundbreaking, but it passes the time nicely.
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Sammy Younan is the affable host of My Summer Lair: think NPR’s Fresh Air meets Kevin Smith: interviews & impressions on Pop Culture.
