Movie Review: Eleanor the Great

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The movie “Eleanor the Great” is a simple and small movie marking the directorial debut of Scarlett Johansson. Eleanor is played by 95-year-old June Squibb (she turns 96 in November 2025), who once again has a very funny and likable presence in this film.

The story is about Eleanor living in Florida with a long-term friend Bessie (Rita Zohar), who for years tells Eleanor about the experiences of her brother and family during the Holocaust. When Bessie dies, Eleanor decides to move to New York City to be with her daughter Lisa (Jessica Hecht) and grandson Max (Will Price). During a Holocaust group therapy session, Eleanor tells some of these Holocaust stories she heard from her friend, unfortunately, not making it clear that these were not her experiences.

Eleanor then becomes friends with a young college student, Nina (Erin Kellyman), who wants to write about her Holocaust experiences. Nina later involves her father, Roger (Chiwetel Ejiofor), who has a TV show, in this project. This story which started very simply, soon becomes complicated with Eleanor getting into trouble with Nina and her father for lying, even though the whole fiasco was a simple misunderstanding.

This story was very well told, along with excellent acting throughout. This movie received a low 66% rating due to its simple story, but in my opinion, the simplicity is the best part of this screenplay, with my rating 80% and a recommendation.

Movie Review: The Senior

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The new movie “The Senior” is one of those true sports movies that would have been rejected as a screenplay, were it not for this TRUE story about a 59-year-old man who returned to a college football team to complete his senior year with the team.

The Senior is a good sports story about Mike Flynt (Michael Chiklis), who was thrown out of college and off the football team in his senior year because he was getting in too many fights. In 2007, at age 59, Mike Flynt tried to remove the biggest regret in his life by trying to go back to his alma mater Sul Ross State University in Texas, and finish his college and football career. Amazingly, Mike was able to last through to the 54-player training camp cut-off and make the team.

While Mike was never a starter, he helped the team in practice and had some moments of glory. This story is full of flashbacks where Mike was abused by his overbearing and cruel father. There are also many conflicts with his son and very often his wife (Mary Stuart Masterson), who do not agree with this insane decision to play college football at age 59, understandably, worrying about severe injury. Mike also faces conflicts with some of the players on the team, especially one player who takes every opportunity to try to stop Mike from realizing his dream, including trying to injure him.

The Rotten Tomatoes rating for The Senior is a solid 81% and I agree with this opinion and recommend this small, well-acted movie.

Movie Review: A Big Bold Beautiful Journey

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The new movie “A Big Bold Beautiful Journey” is another example of an innovative idea, never been done before, trying to be groundbreaking over a good story, good screenplay, excellent dialogue, or great new film.

This idea about a rental car company that only has defunct Saturn cars (the company went out of business in 2009), with a GPS device that leads people to portals where they can revisit different parts of their lives, is one of the craziest I have ever seen. This movie stars Colin Farrell as David and Margot Robbie as Sarah who meet at a wedding, then part ways, and then, due to the GPS in their rented Saturn cars, meet again, and make stops as they drive, visiting doors that are standing in the middle of nowhere that are portals to significant times in their lives. This is a somewhat interesting new idea, that just does not work as a movie, much like last year’s Tom Hanks movie “Here,” which has a similar concept that also did not work. Aside from the new concept not working, this movie is just way too boring in too many areas.

The good parts of this mostly failed movie are at the end when both characters talk about their previous painful relationship breakups and heartache, reminding all of us that, hand in hand with love and relationships, comes the potential for huge risk both financially and emotionally.

The Rotten Tomatoes rating of 37% is very accurate this time around and I agree with this rating. One has to acknowledge the risk of a new idea like this, but in the end, the entire concept just did not work. This one is a solid pass.