After a quiet theatrical release and grossing $3 million worldwide, Scarlett Johansson's directorial debut has found new life on Netflix.
Johansson directed Eleanor the Great, a comedy-drama film starring June Squibb, Erin Kellyman, Jessica Hecht, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Rita Zohar. Squibb plays the 94-year-old Eleanor, who moves back to New York City after the sudden death of her longtime best friend, Bessie (Zohar), who was a Holocaust survivor. In New York, the lonely Eleanor befriends a journalist student named Nina (Kellyman) and finds herself falling deeper into a lie that takes on a life of its own. The movie initially debuted at the Cannes Film Festival.
Now, Eleanor the Great is on the Top 10 chart for Netflix's most-watched movies in the United States. It came to the streaming platform on January 24 and has been on the US chart for several days since as it fluctuates between the eighth, ninth, and tenth spots. As of this writing, it is in tenth place, behind The Rip, M3GAN 2.0, Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart, Miracle: The Boys of '80, Secret Mall Apartment, Dhurandhar, People We Meet on Vacation, and No Time to Die.
With a 66% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes, Eleanor the Great reviews were mixed, with many taking issue with the film's tonal inconsistencies, although Squibb received near-universal praise for her performance. In ScreenRant's review, Rachel LaBonte writes that "The biggest selling point is Squibb. With a mischievous twinkle in her eye, she shoots off wisecracks and plenty of grandmotherly affection, and you almost wish you could be friends with Eleanor too."
As indicated by the much higher Popcornmeter score of 93%, general audiences responded better to Johansson's directorial debut than many critics did. This positive reception is now represented by the far-reaching success that the film has found in the United States only days after coming to Netflix.
While Eleanor the Great's story is fictional, the titular character is inspired by the grandmother of Tory Kamen, who wrote the film. Similar to Eleanor, Kamen's grandmother moved from Florida to New York when she was in her 90s. She shared with her granddaughter some of her struggles with forming connections at this stage in life, especially when others seemingly only want to hear about the past.
Prior to Eleanor the Great, Squibb received critical acclaim for her performance in the 2024 movie Thelma, where she plays a 93-year-old woman pursuing an individual who scammed her out of $10,000. She also has a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nomination for Nebraska. As for Kellyman, she has starred in Solo: A Star Wars Story, Marvel's The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, the Disney+ Willow series, and 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.
