June Squibb

ELEANOR THE GREAT: grief, an appalling lie, redemption

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Photo caption: June Squibb in ELEANOR THE GREAT. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.

In the fine dramedy Eleanor the Great, the 94-year old widow Eleanor (played by 94-year old June Squibb) moves to New York City, near her daughter and grandson. On her way to a class for seniors at the Jewish Community Center, she is diverted to a group of Holocaust survivors, who mistake her for one of them. She is not a Holocaust survivor, but fails to correct them, and then gets in deeper when the enthusiastic college student Nina (Erin Kellyman) chooses her as the subject for a school project.

Nina’s mother has unexpectedly died six month before, and Nina is still rocked by the loss. She needs the support of her father, the celebrity journalist Roger (Chiwetel Ejiofor), but he is too consumed by his own grief to provide it. Eleanor’s grandmotherly nurturing fills the void.

Eleanor has just lost Bessie, her best friend of 50 years; the two women had been roommates as widows for the past eleven years. Grieving the loss and being new in a strange city, Eleanor is very lonely, and she adopts Nina as her own. The two become inter-generational soulmates.

But their relationship was founded on an outrageous lie – a lie that is easy to expose. We know that it is inevitable that Eleanor will, as they say, lose control of the narrative.

This is a really good movie, and not the one I expected. It’s not a geezer comedy. And it’s Nina’s movie as much as it’s Eleanor’s. As Eleanor the Great moves from a comedy of manners into an exploration of grief, the key is found in three relationships, those of Eleanor and Bessie, Nina and her dad and Nina and Eleanor.

Erin Kellyman in ELEANOR THE GREAT. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.

Of course, no one can play an old gal full of piss and vinegar better than June Squibb (Nebraska, Thelma), and she doesn’t disappoint. But the revelation here is Erin Kellyman’s remarkably convincing performance as Nina; she’s great.

Ejiofor is good as Nina’s dad, and so are Jessica Hecht as Eleanor’s sandwich generation daughter and Rita Zohar as Eleanor’s dear friend Bessie.

Eleanor the Great is the first feature for Scarlett Johannson as a director and for screenwriter Tony Kamen. Johannson directs this film very ably, with near-perfect pacing. Scarlett Johannson is also a NYC native who loves NYC, and like Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese, she gets to celebrate the city in her work.

A much deeper film than its marketing would indicate, Eleanor the Great is still an audience-pleaser.

THELMA: too proud to be taken

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Photo caption: June Squibb and Fred Hechinger in THELMA. Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures | photo by David Bolen.

Thelma stars 93-year-old June Squibb (Oscar-nominated for Nebraska) in an action picture. Squibb plays a scammed senior who goes on a quest to recover her money from the scammers. To accomplish that, she’s got to go on the run from her frantic family, bust her friend (Richard Roundtree) out of his rest home and master some 21st century technology.

Thelma is much more than a geezer comedy, and has something to say about every generation. She has a very sweet relationship with her grandson (Fred Hechinger), who may not find himself by age thirty, much to his self-loathing and the angst of his parents (Parker Posey and Clark Gregg). Those parents have found them in the sandwich generation, leading very busy lives, from which they are sometimes distracted to worry about their elderly parents and their floundering offspring. Thelma herself is one tough cookie, who lives independently and knows how to ask for help, unless she happens to be too proud or too embarrassed.

Richard Roundtree and June Squibb in THELMA. Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures | photo by David Bolen.

June Squibb is wonderful as Thelma. This was the final performance of Richard Roundtree (Shaft), and it’s a very sweet one. Hechinger is very, very good. Even a small dose of Parker Posey is delightful. There’s even a cameo by Malcom McDowell, 53 years after A Clockwork Orange.

Writer-director Josh Margolin was inspired by an incident in his own family.

I screened Thelma for the SFFILM; it was the closing night film of both the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival and SFFILM. It’s an absolute hoot, and it opens in theaters this weekend.

DVD/Stream of the Week: Nebraska

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In the funny, poignant and thought-provoking Nebraska, a Montana geezer named Woody (Bruce Dern) gets a sweepstakes come on in the mail and believes that he has actually won a million dollars. Unwilling to accept the explanations from his loved ones, Woody is determined to get to Omaha to claim his fortune – by walking if necessary. His son David (Will Forte from Saturday Night Live) decides to drive him, and their journey takes them through Woody’s tiny Nebraska hometown.

At first, we see that Woody is bitter, drinks too much, is sometimes addled and drives his loved ones crazy. As the story progresses, we learn that Woody’s bitterness is rooted in frustration of his modest aspirations by both circumstance and by his own shortcomings. And we see David longing for a relationship with his father that he had never thought possible before. David makes a valiant effort, but Woody is long past any sentimentality. In Nebraska, director Alexander Payne (Sideways, The Descendants) has another triumph of endearingly flawed characters.

There are many laughs in Nebraska, the funniest coming from Woody’s wife’s salty exasperation, David’s repellant cousins and the hilarious theft of a generator.

The acting is outstanding. Bruce Dern deservedly got an Oscar nomination. It’s a character that is revealed to be more and more complex. Is he demented, or is he in denial, or is he lying? Some of each for sure, but it’s always hard to tell. Dern has stated that he called upon his own experience with unsupportive parents to play the film’s most searing scene, in which David takes a reluctant Woody back to see Woody’s now abandoned childhood home. June Squibb, who play’s Woody’s wife, was also nominated for an Oscar; indeed, she gets to deliver most of the funniest lines.

But there are two other exceptional performances that I don’t want to overlook. As the son, Will Forte plays Woody’s straight man. It’s a far less flashy role – and perhaps more challenging role. But Forte lets us see past the son’s stoicism to his pain, embarrassment, frustration, determination and love.

And Actress Angela McEwan has the tiny part of the small town newspaper publisher. She just gets one brief exchange with Forte and then a second scene where she looks at a truck driving past. That look is one of the unforgettable moment in cinema this year.

Finally, my parents were from Nebraska, and I have spent plenty of time in the state. I must say that I have NEVER seen such a dead on take on small town Nebraska and Nebraskans. If you see Nebraska, you really don’t need to visit the real Nebraska to capture the full experience.

I found Nebraska to be an exceptionally evocative family portrait, and I’ve liked and admired it the more I’ve thought about it. One of my Best Movies of 2013 and nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, it is available on DVD from Netflix and Redbox and streaming from Amazon Instant, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play and XBOX Video.

Nebraska: funny, poignant and thought-provoking

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In the funny, poignant and thought-provoking Nebraska, a Montana geezer named Woody (Bruce Dern) gets a sweepstakes come on in the mail and believes that he has actually won a million dollars.  Unwilling to accept the explanations from his loved ones, Woody is determined to get to Omaha to claim his fortune – by walking if necessary.  His son David (Will Forte from Saturday Night Live) decides to drive him, and their journey takes them through Woody’s tiny Nebraska hometown.

At first, we see that Woody is bitter, drinks too much, is sometimes addled and drives his loved ones crazy.  As the story progresses, we learn that Woody’s bitterness is rooted in  frustration of his modest aspirations by both circumstance and by his own shortcomings.  And we see David longing for a relationship with his father that he had never thought possible before.  David makes a valiant effort, but Woody is long past any sentimentality.  In Nebraska, director Alexander Payne (Sideways, The Descendants) has another triumph of endearingly flawed characters.

There are many laughs in Nebraska, the funniest coming from Woody’s wife’s salty exasperation, David’s repellant cousins and the hilarious theft of a generator.

The acting is outstanding.  Bruce Dern will certainly – and deservedly – get an Oscar nomination.  It’s a character that is revealed to be more and more complex.  Is he demented, or is he in denial, or is he lying?  Some of each for sure, but it’s always hard to tell.  Dern has stated that he called upon his own experience with unsupportive parents to play the film’s most searing scene, in which David takes a reluctant Woody back to see Woody’s now abandoned childhood home.  June Squibb, who play’s Woody’s wife, has also been mentioned for an Oscar nod; indeed, she gets to deliver most of the funniest lines.

But there are two other exceptional performances that I don’t want to overlook.  As the son, Will Forte plays Woody’s straight man.  It’s a far less flashy role – and perhaps more challenging role.  But Forte lets us see past the son’s stoicism to his pain, embarrassment, frustration, determination and love.

And Actress Angela McEwan has the tiny part of the small town newspaper publisher.  She just gets one brief exchange with Forte and then a second scene where she looks at a truck driving past.  That look is one of the unforgettable moment in cinema this year.

Finally, my parents were from Nebraska, and I have spent plenty of time in the state.  I must say that I have NEVER seen such a dead on take on small town Nebraska and Nebraskans.  If you see Nebraska, you really don’t need to visit the real Nebraska to capture the full experience.

I found Nebraska to be an exceptionally evocative family portrait, and I’ve liked and admired it the more I’ve thought about it.  One of the Best Movies of 2013 – So Far.