The Tender Bar Review: A True Story For A Film About Sentimental Education Perfect Reconstruction Of The 70s

Cast: Ben Affleck, Tye Sheridan, Daniel Ranieri, Lily Rabe, Christopher Lloyd

Director: George Clooney

Streaming Platform: Amazon Prime Video (click to watch)

Filmyhype  Ratings: 3/5 (three star) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

That George Clooney loved classic cinema is no mystery. And classic, in form and content, as our review of The Tender Bar reveals, is the delicate coming of age that tells the childhood and adolescence of aspiring writer JR Moehringer. Never as in this case, the content reflects the title of the film available on Prime Video. George Clooney’s latest direction is a comfortable vision, which warms the heart in telling a family like many others, dysfunctional, but at the same time full of warmth. A completely normal existence, which teaches us how love and support are a necessary basis to find the strength to make one’s dreams come true.

The Tender Bar: The Story

The Tender Bar is based on JR Moehringer’s full-bodied memoir, The Bar of Great Expectations. In the adaptation, screenwriter William Monahan chose to focus on some episodes of JR’s childhood and his time in college. The film opens in 1973, when JR’s mother (Lily Rabe) returns to her parents with her ten-year-old son penniless and with a failed marriage behind her. JR (newcomer Daniel Ranieri) suffers from the absence of his father, an abusive Manhattan radio deejay addicted to alcohol, but the picturesque grandfather (Christopher Lloyd) and above all his uncle Charlie (Ben Affleck) fill the void, a wise bartender who becomes his mentor. As the mother struggles to secure all the opportunities she hasn’t had, JR will find courage, motivation and inspiration to pursue his dreams thanks to the affection of his loved ones.

Just like JR’s novel – which we highly recommend you read – Clooney’s film distributed by Prime Video also revolves around different and essential themes: loneliness, the fear of growing up, the search for a father figure, masculinity, sense of inadequacy, the nuances of the word family. The story, as said autobiographical, has as protagonist JR Moehringer (played both by little Daniel Ranieri and by Tye Sheridan) who, first became the signature of the New York Times as well as Pulitzer Prize and collaborator of André Agassi for a fundamental book like Open, he had to fight hard to find his place in the world. Born in Manhasset County, Long Island, an only child and a single mother (Lily Rabe), JR grew up with the voice of Frank Sinatra and the voice of his speaker dad heard only on the radio, and was ideally embraced by his place of the heart, namely the Dickens that later became Publicans, a bar run by uncle Charlie (Ben Affleck).

The Tender Bar Review

critics do not seem to have particularly appreciated The Tender Bar. A bit incomprehensibly, we add. Although characterized by a linear trend, without real peaks, The Tender Bar is a coming of age accurate in the staging, which chooses to tell a small family story by transforming normality into narrative material. George Clooney returns to confirm his ability to direct the actors by surrounding himself with a cast functional to the story told. The director sews on his friend Ben Affleck a perfect role, that of the light-hearted uncle Charlie, who rattles off the his pearls of wisdom carelessly and always knows how to be there when needed.

A Ben Affleck in a state of grace steals the show from his colleagues proving once again that, when given the right role, he can function independently of the film. At his side, a nice discovery is represented by Briana Middleton, who plays the sentimental interest of JR in college, the bright Sidney, rich and rebellious, who will make the boy turn to the head by distracting him momentarily from his path. In the role of an affectionate and determined mother, even if conspicuously imperfect, Lily Rabe confirms a good presence in the cast even if the role does not allow her to express her full potential. A little speckish Christopher Lloyd , whose likeable grandfather is little more than a cameo. Tye Sheridan’s performance, who plays the teenage JR, is correct, but a little lackluster. Compared to past roles, this time the actor fails to bring out the grit and his character is rather passive with respect to events.

The limits of The Tender Bar are concentrated in the narrative trend. Telling the life of an aspiring writer, whose passions are, precisely, reading and writing, in itself is not an exciting subject. In addition to that, the tale modeled by William Monahan poses no real obstacles in the hero’s path. Despite the chronic lack of money, the business of entering Yale is quite simple and even the brief journalistic experience in the editorial office of the New York Times does not leave too deep wounds. George Clooney’s direction tries to patch up this flaw by trying to make us passionate about the characters and their interactions, but not all of the cast manages to have the same impact on the audience. The film takes shape, therefore,

A narrative that is all in all not very exciting corresponds to an impeccable staging. The atmosphere of melancholy nostalgia that envelops JR’s childhood is supported by the accuracy in the reconstruction of environments, by Martin Ruhe’s sepia toned and battered photography, by Jenny Eagan’s impeccable costumes (a few notes on certain hairstyles by Ben Affleck and Lily Rabe, on the other hand, we could) and by the extraordinary period songs that serve as the soundtrack. From the opening sequence that sees the return to Long Island of JR and his mother, complete with a mattress tied to the roof of the car, the music accompanies the characters’ ruminations with hits like Radar Love by Golden Errings, Do It Againby Steely Dan, but also by Jackson Browne and the Isley Brothers. It is not for nothing that JR’s father at work acts as a deejay and the radio is the only tool that allows him to feel close to his parent, partially filling the void that afflicts him. Coming to the understanding that presence and affection matter more than blood ties will be the greatest lesson the aspiring writer, and with him the audience, can learn from the film. A lesson that George Clooney decides to teach with sweetness, whether he likes it or not.

The Tender Bar: The Last Words

George Clooney’s new directorial film is a coming-of-age novel, but also a family story about the childhood and adolescence of aspiring writer JR. of peaks, it is distinguished by a linear trend, at times a little too flat, but to capture the attention of the public are the performances of the cast led by a Ben Affleck in a state of grace.