Movies I saw in September: Jaws, Eleanor the Great, Him

Jaws: A++

Last month I saw Jaws. It was not the first time I saw this movie, more like the 30th time, but it was the first time I got to see it in the theater. And that screening was also the first time I have paid to watch something that I had already seen dozens of times on TV.

That was cool.

Because it was not only great to finally see Steven Spielberg’s masterpiece of pacing and practical effects on the big screen, but to see how many other people came out to watch this classic, which was re-released in theaters for its 50th birthday this year . And while I still don’t agree with my husband that we needed to pay extra for the IMAX treatment, I am glad we finally got to see this movie in the theater.

Jaws. (9/1/2025, in the theater). Grade: A++. Jaws is not just a great movie, it is two great movies: The first about a beach town terrorized by both shark attacks and selfish leaders, and the second about three men on a boat battling a huge shark. And every scene in both movies is so watchable that even though my husband had already seen them dozens of times, he still agonized over when to leave his seat to get more popcorn because he couldn’t decide which scene he could stand to miss.

Eleanor the Great (9/26/2025, in the theater.) Grade: C-. I knew nothing about this movie beforehand except that it starred June Squibb, whom I love watching. And I did like the first few scenes as we join two old ladies eating breakfast, then exercising while deciding what to eat for dinner, then lecturing a young man at the grocery store about how they know more of the specific pickles they want must be in the back because they always shop the morning after delivery day.

And though Eleanor was more nasty than cranky in many exchanges, I could have happily watched a whole movie of the 95-year-olds just navigating the world in their comfy sneakers and visors, since the older I get, the more I covet these fantasies of women friends sharing the end of their lives together à la The Golden Girls or Grace & Frankie. 

Eleanor the Great: C-

But unlike those terrific television shows, or even the much better 2024 movie starring Squibb called Thelma, this movie decided that exploring the million indignities of getting older with these women wasn’t enough to carry a movie; and neither was the touching bond we see form between Eleanor, grieving the sudden loss of her lifelong friend, and a young woman named Nina, who is grieving the sudden loss of her mother.

Since I used to be that teenager left alone with an emotionally crippled father after my mother died, the portrayal of Nina felt very genuine to me, and I would have loved to just watch the women eating pizza together and shooting straw wrappers at each other, instead of following them up the contrived and syrupy staircase the movie decided we all needed to climb.

Most disappointing of all is that this very mediocre movie could actually have been two really good movies: One about a woman who survived the Holocaust and decided in her 90s to finally have the Bat Mitzvah she was denied before, and the other about two grieving women, one very old and one very young, who find in each other the comfort and validation that only a real human connection, thorns and all, can offer.

Him: D-

Him. (9/30/2025, in the theater). Grade: D-. I was intrigued by the trailer for this movie, thinking it looked like “The Substance,” only with football supremacy as the prize instead of eternal youth. 

But while “Him” was also about making unholy sacrifices to achieve more than mere mortals can or should, it was nowhere near as imaginative or fantastically horrific as “The Substance.” Instead, most of its 98 minutes were so slow and repetitive that all of the movie’s plot points and interesting visuals could have easily been sculpted into one three-minute music video.

In fact, I got so bored that twice I almost left, but luckily stayed until the end so I can report that the final scene did deliver enough satisfying carnage to at least save the movie from earning an “F.”

Movies I saw in August: F1, Naked Gun, Thelma & Louise.

And, finally, my grandmother’s movie reviews from September of 1998:

9/11/1998: To show, “Rounders.” Good.

Tennis: Davenport over Williams, 6/4, 6/4.

9/12/1998: To show, “Slums of Beverly Hills.” Gross!

Mail: Package from Mina, video of BBC on Diana.

9/15/1999: To show, “Saving Private Ryan.” 3 hours. Good.

TV:  About 5 minutes of Geraldo, then Morse, Law & Order.