The Tender Bar (2021)

There is a group of people who have troubled the cinema, and this mass is fed only by spreading negative energy.

George Clooney and Ben Affleck have been targeted by such people throughout their careers.

The film, which Clooney did a very clean job, attracts people especially with its 70's texture.

Intelligently chosen actors and actresses, excellent selection of songs, cinematography, art direction are very good.

The script is already a book adaptation.

Tye Sheridan is my favorite generation Z actor. He showed her talent in this movie as well.

A very good 'Coming of Age' movie is waiting for you and the movie gives you more than what it promises in this sense.

Fmovies: Autobiographical dramedy of JR from small boy to adult (Tye Sheridan) looking at the people in his life, his successes and failures and particularly his relationship with beloved uncle (Affleck) and his devoted mother (Rabe) all living under the roof of his grumpy but lovable grandfather (Lloyd - terrific!).

This is mostly light in tone with a few laugh out loud moments, a slight touch of sentiment and a fun turn from Affleck as the uncle everyone wants - in fact the only real drama comes from his rare meetings with his deeply unpleasant alcoholic father. Hence sweet though it is, it is a little unbalanced, but you'll likely walk away with a warm, cuddly smile on your face.

As "The Tender Bar" (2021 release; 104 min.) opens, a young boy (named J. R.) and his mom are moving back into her parents' house on Long Island in 1973. Also living is the house is Uncle Charlie, the brother of The Absent Father who is a DJ on a New York Top-40s station. Uncle Charlie runs a bar, the Dickens, where everybody knows your name... At this point we are 10 min into the movie.

Couple of comments: this is the latest film directed by George Clooney (he doesn't star in it). Here he adapts the memoir of the same name from J. R. Moehringer for the silver screen. I haven't read the memoir and hence cannot comment how closely the film sticks to the underlying book. But I can say this: the movie is warm and pleasant, yet utterly straightforward without any major tension to speak of. The movie could've been called "The Absent Father" as that theme play prominently. But it also could've been called "The Wonder Years Meet Cheers", as the film more than remind of both TV shows. In fact, it feels derivative of both. Ben Affleck is fine as Uncle Charlie. Christopher Lloyd is Grandpa. Tye Sheridan ("Ready Player One") is J. R. as a teenager/college kid. But most noteworthy is Briana Middleton, making her film debut as Sydney, J. R.'s love interest in college. Surely we have not seen the last of her. Also noteworthy is Daniel Ranieri as the 9 yr old J. R. The movie opens with Golden Earring's "Radar Love" blasting from the car radio, and it is just the first of many, many song placements from the early and mid 70s. If you are a certain age, it will all come back to you in a flash.

"The Tender Bar" premiered at the London Film Festival last Fall, and was given a very limited US theatrical run in December. It just started streaming this weekend on Amazon Prime, where I caught it. If you are in the mood for a pleasant if utterly predictable coming-of-age film that is a derivative mix of "The Wonder Years" and "Cheers", I'd readily suggest you check this out, be it on Amazon Prime, Amazon Instant Video, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, and draw your own conclusion.

The Tender Bar fmovies. In an elsewise skipstone splashing, and flashback narration presented story, an egobiopic of a fractured but even though that, a nice childhood many people may reckon cause i lived there and loads of youngsters of today will envy due to digitized overkill and isocialisation.

Production gives a near perfect timestamp of them good ol'days, very nice stashed sets, nice cars and choice of music that may declare some dendrites reopened in mr alzheimers brains,...''yeah i remember that tone shift, so lets ''do it again'' yeah''...

nice cast all over, the only thing missing mr Moehringer and mr.clooney is the promise to make a sequel and the rest of your JR -lifestory and shrouded secrets. A recommend is given by the wise grumpy old man.

"The Tender Bar" is a Drama movie in which we watch the life of J. R. Moehringer, an American who became novelist and journalist. We follow him from his early life on Long Island to his start as a journalist.

I enjoyed this movie very much because it was based on the life of a real person, it had an interesting plot that presented some very important issues of society and how these issues can influence a child. The direction which was made by George Clooney was simply amazing and he presented equally good the plot of his movie and his main characters. In addition to this, the interpretation of Ben Affleck who played as Uncle Charlie was outstanding and he made the difference. Some other interpretations that have to be mentioned were Tye Sheridan's who played as JR and Lily Rabe's who played as Mom. Lastly, I have to say that "The Tender Bar" is a beautiful movie and I highly recommend everyone to watch it.

And a smoke. Boy, a LOT of smokes.

The Tender Bar is a "tender" coming-of-age movie about a writer with a great relationship with his Uncle. Annnnnd that's about it. Nothing huge, no gotcha moments, no monumental speeches or monologues. Heck, Ben Affleck doesn't even turn into Batman.

But, sometimes that's okay. Just to see a normal life. Albeit...without all the hard work. This is the story of a very poor kid destined to go to Yale and technically, that would be very hard to do. So, let's not show that part.

It very well acted, namely the main character as a boy. This character is later shared by a young adult, and it's about 50/50. Both actors did very good, but the boy, who has to match well established actors around him, did wonders.

I love (the Director) George Clooney, but this movie was so darkly lit and old-timey (yes, I know it was set in the past, but not the old west,) and I was NOT a fan of how it looked. Always dusty, dirty. Never allowed me to feel happy when I believe this is supposed to be...well, aside from that estranged father.

Anyways, for a well-acted and meaning coming of age drama free on Prime, it's worth a shot.

***

Final Thoughts: Complete side note and just personal, I hate the title. I get it, sure, but even though the bar was featured a ton, the movie didn't center around it. Also, it doesn't role off the tongue easily.