Welcome back to my Home Movies! Today, we have one of the best films of the year hitting shelves, hoping for more attention, as well as a modern classic getting a 4K Criterion release. This week features much more than Eleanor the Great, new release wise, but it leads the charge, while the slate obviously is also highlighted by Eyes Wide Shut joining the Criterion Collection (I posted my interview with cinematographer Larry Smith here). What else is out there? Read on to find out…
Joey’s Top Pick
Eleanor the Great
June Squibb is so good in Eleanor the Great, it’s almost frustrating to see how underrated her performance is becoming. Squibb, under the assured direction of Scarlett Johansson, does arguably her best work in this funny and heartbreaking dramedy. I spoke to Squibb and co-ster Erin Kellyman here, so definitely give that a watch, as they’re both lovely. My rave review from the Toronto International Film Festival (here) begins like so:
It will never not be fascinating to me to consider the material actors/actresses choose when they step behind the camera. Often, it’s a film they’re able to star in, so it’s rare for them not to even appear in a supporting role. So, for Scarlett Johansson to chose her directorial debut to be Eleanor the Great, which requires a 90 plus year old actress in the lead, is notable. Moreover, the fact that she’s made an incredible movie is notable as well, for obvious reasons. Currently screening at the Toronto International Film Festival, it’s one of the best and most moving flicks that I’ve seen in 2025.
Eleanor the Great is both funnier than you’re expecting as well as more heartbreaking. When there’s comedy being staged, you’ll laugh. When it goes for your emotions, you’ll almost certainly cry. This is very much a full cinematic meal, one that will really sneak up on you. I went in cautiously optimistic and wound up being bowled over.
Also Available This Week
Anemone
Berberian Sound Studio (Blu-ray)
The Conjuring: 4-Film Collection (Blu-ray)
The Conjuring 4: Last Rites
The Death Wish Collection (Blu-ray)
Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie
Light of the World
Lurker
Criterion Corner
Eyes Wide Shut
From The Criterion Collection: “Stanley Kubrick’s career-capping Eyes Wide Shut unfolds in a dreamscape vision of New York City, where doctor Bill Harford (Tom Cruise) and his wife, Alice (Nicole Kidman), confront the unconscious desires, jealousies, and fears threatening their marriage. A Christmastime odyssey into a surreal sexual underworld whose hidden power structures are laid frighteningly bare, the film marks the fulfillment of the director’s decades-long desire to adapt Arthur Schnitzler’s novella Traumnovelle (Dream Story) and the culmination of his obsessive interest in the relationship between institutional authority and the individual. Released in 1999, the film also serves as a fitting coda to a century of cinema, by one of its greatest visionaries—an endlessly tantalizing labyrinth whose myriad symbols, mysteries, and meanings are still being unraveled.”
Stay tuned for more next week…