‘Eleanor the Great’ and ‘The Strangers – Chapter 2’ Face Off in the Ultimate Challenge!

October 2, 2025

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People are Strangers, when Eleanor is Great (CREDIT: Sony Pictures Classics/Screenshot; Lionsgate)

Eleanor the Great

Starring: June Squibb, Erin Kellyman, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jessica Hecht, Rita Zohar, Will Price

Director: Scarlett Johansson

Running Time: 98 Minutes

Rating: PG-13

Release Date: September 26, 2025 (Theaters)

The Strangers – Chapter 2

Starring: Madelaine Petsch, Gabriel Basso, Ema Horvath, Rachel Shenton

Director: Renny Harlin

Running Time: 98 Minutes

Rating: R

Release Date: September 26, 2025 (Theaters)

Sometimes when I watch two very different movies in quick succession, I like to ask which one of them feels more like home. First up we have Eleanor the Great, in which June Squibb plays a woman who moves in with her daughter and grandson and then befriends a young journalism student in the course of pretending that her recently deceased friend’s experience of surviving the Holocaust is her own story. Meanwhile, The Strangers – Chapter 2 (which is of course the fourth film in the Strangers franchise) is just the latest misadventure of masked killers delivering their lethal blows to ostensibly random targets.

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Meeting Up with ‘Thelma’ and Landing on ‘Janet Planet’

July 2, 2024

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Thelma Being Thelma (CREDIT: Magnolia Pictures)

Thelma

Starring: June Squibb, Fred Hechinger, Richard Roundtree, Parker Posey, Clark Gregg, Malcolm McDowell, Nicole Byer, Coral Peña

Director: Josh Margolin

Running Time: 98 Minutes

Rating: PG-13

Release Date: June 21, 2024 (Theaters)

Janet Planet

Starring: Julianne Nicholson, Zoe Ziegler, Elias Koteas, Sophie Okonedo, Will Patton

Director: Annie Baker

Running Time: 110 Minutes

Rating: PG-13

Release Date: June 21, 2024 (Theaters)

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‘Inside Out 2,’ Anxiety Boogaloo

June 14, 2024

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You put the Inside Out, you put the Outside In (CREDIT: Pixar/Screenshot)

Starring: Amy Poehler, Maya Hawke, Phyllis Smith, Kensington Tallman, Tony Hale, Lewis Black, Liza Lapira, Ayo Edebiri, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Paul Walter Hauser, Diane Lane, Kyle MacLachlan, Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green, Grace Lu, Yong Yea, Yvette Nicole Brown, Ron Funches, James Austin Johnson, Steve Purcell, Dave Goelz, Kirk Thatcher, Frank Oz, Paula Pell, June Squibb, Pete Docter

Director: Kelsey Mann

Running Time: 96 Minutes

Rating: PG

Release Date: June 14, 2024 (Theaters)

I often like to ask if the movies that I watch make me want to be what they are. But of course, what Inside Out and Inside Out 2 posit is that, we are all already inside out. How twisted! Just like Pouchy – what a dynamite addition. Speaking of new characters, I’m already nostalgic for Nostalgia. Damn, that anxiety attack was exhilarating. Don’t spin around with a baseball bat for a dizzy race right before watching this movie!

Grade: 4001 Insides out of 5000 Outs

‘Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead,’ Do Become Stressed Out

April 16, 2024

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I haven’t told my mom that I watched this movie (CREDIT: Iconic Events/Screenshot)

Starring: Simone Joy Jones, Nicole Richie, Donielle Tremaine Hansley, Ayaamii Sledge, Carter Young, June Squibb, Miles Fowler, Ms. Pat, Jermaine Fowler, Gus Kenworthy, Iantha Richardson

Director: Wade Allain-Marcus

Running Time: 99 Minutes

Rating: R

Release Date: April 12, 2024 (Theaters)

Y’all know I sometimes like to review movies by asking: would I like this to happen to me? In the case of Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead (2024 Version), I don’t think I can go any higher than a “Reply hazy, try again.”

I’ve never seen the original Don’t Tell…, so I don’t know if this 21st century version opted for a totally new direction, but I can say for sure that this is NOT what I was expecting. With a deceased babysitter, I figured the kids would take their newfound freedom and get up to a bunch of unfettered adventures that Mom cannot know about. But instead, the kids need money, so they apply for jobs that Mom cannot know about. Instead of vicarious partying, I had to paddle through vicarious financial precarity. ACK!

Grade: Don’t Tell Mom About the Fraud Either

We Need Some Candy on October 31. Do We Also Need ‘Hubie Halloween’?

October 12, 2020

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Hubie Halloween (CREDIT: Netflix)

Starring: Adam Sandler, Julie Bowen, June Squibb, Kevin James, Ray Liotta, Steve Buscemi, Maya Rudolph, Tim Meadows, Kenan Thompson, Rob Schneider, Michael Chiklis, Karan Brar, Noah Schnapp, Paris Berelc, Sadie Sandler, Sunny Sandler, George Wallace, Colin Quinn, Kym Whitley, Mikey Day

Director: Steven Brill

Running Time: 102 Minutes

Release Date: October 7, 2020 (Netflix)

I decided that I simply must have something to say about Hubie Halloween, since I hold so dearly Adam Sandler’s last-minute Halloween costume ideas on Weekend Update from back in the day. So the big question is: did this tale of Salem’s official Halloween monitor give me those same warm, sugary feelings?

The Sandman has busted that old Shabadoo-voice, so that certainly helps. But what’s up with all the kids in town (and some adults) pelting him with candy whatever chance they get? Hubie wants you to have a happy Halloween! It’s hard to do that when you’re sacrificing your own candy! Furthermore, in addition to all the mischief, there’s several attempted felonies, a fair degree of mental instability, and pretty much no attempt to reconcile that darkness with the purely comical tone.

Ultimately, in a weird way this is all in keeping with the spirit of last-minute costume ideas. Hubie Halloween feels like a last-minute movie that was quickly cobbled together from a bunch of silly Halloween-related ideas bouncing around in Sandler’s head. In conclusion, I found myself in a good mood after watching, and I’m happy to declare, once again, “Now give me some candy!”

Grade: 3 out of 5 Crazy Protractor Beards