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What a time to be June Squibb. The 95-year-old actress has been working in the entertainment industry since the late 1950s, where she began in theater. Since then her multi-decade career has spanned television and film, on top of regularly being in theater, but she did not make her feature film debut until Woody Allen's 1990 "Alice." She has been a reliable supporting player, but her career was put on the next level when she became Oscar-nominated for 2013's "Nebraska," and her trajectory in film has continued to be a slow burn.

Just last year, Squibb starred in her first lead film role in the delightful action-comedy "Thelma." Her latest film, "Eleanor the Great," finds the actress front-and-center once again, with no signs of slowing down. She's an actress who has shown that being in one's "prime" doesn't always have to attach itself to one's age, because in her mid-90s, Squibb is doing some of the most meaningful work of her long career.

"Eleanor the Great" marks the directorial debut of Scarlett Johansson, based on a screenplay by first-time feature writer Tory Kamen. As a piece of filmmaking, there's not much indication that this was a passion project for Johansson, but perhaps she has acquired the right amount of fame and wealth that she was ready to direct a ready-to-go screenplay (which is entirely speculative). She captures the New York City-based film with warmth, but her straight-forward direction doesn't light up the movie - Squibb does.

Eleanor (Squibb) lives in a senior community in Florida with her best friend Bessie (Rita Zohar). They've been friends for decades and do just about everything together in their sunny community. Whether grocery shopping or sitting around the table as Bessie tells Eleanor tales of her life as a Holocaust survivor, there is a genuine love between the two. When Bessie passes away, Eleanor's life turns upside down and she is forced to move to New York City with her daughter Lisa (Jessica Hecht) and her son Max (Will Price).

Eleanor and Lisa have a bit of a contentious relationship and Eleanor is certainly not ready to live a life where Lisa constantly has eyes on her. At Lisa's suggestion, Eleanor joins a community center, where during her introduction she tells a massive - and harmful - lie that spirals out of control. Her lie reaches a young journalism student named Nina (Erin Kellyman), who is pursuing journalism to find connection with her father Roger (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a television personality that Eleanor has great affection towards.

"Eleanor the Great" is a tale of grief and loss, and there are affecting moments throughout, but the movie never rises above familiar thematic territory. The power of the movie lies within Squibb's performance. Her last few roles have sidestepped cliches that might be given to an actress of a certain age; Eleanor is a deeply flawed character, and there's no sense of pandering to her because of her age. While that may be the way the character is written, it's wonderfully illustrated by Squibb's performance. May her next leading role be just as rich.