The Tender Bar
Ben Affleck's wonderful performance and this critic's personal experiences helped elevate George Clooney's most recent directorial effort.
As far as recent movies about uncles having surrogate paternal bonds with their nephews goes, Mike Mills’ “C’mon C’mon” is certainly a class above George Clooney’s “The Tender Bar” (opening in select theaters including Indianapolis’ Landmark Keystone Art Cinema and Kan-Kan Cinema and Brasserie as well as Noblesville, Ind.’s Emagine Noblesville on Wednesday, Dec. 22 and available to stream on Amazon Prime Video beginning Friday, Jan. 7), but I must admit I related to Clooney’s effort far more deeply.
The film is an adaptation of J.R. Moehringer’s 2005 memoir concerning his unconventional upbringing in Long Island, N.Y. and his coming of age at Yale University and later in the newsroom of The New York Times. Young J.R. (precociously foul-mouthed YouTube sensation Daniel Ranieri) and his mother Dorothy (Lily Rabe) move in with Grandpa (Christopher Lloyd – no, not the one who writes for this site) and Uncle Charlie (Ben Affleck) after the dissolution of her marriage to J.R.’s deadbeat disc jockey Dad known simply as The Voice (Max Martini).
As J.R. grows up (now played by Tye Sheridan) his interest in literature is fostered by Charlie, an uneducated but intelligent man who slings suds at literarily-monikered watering hole The Dickens. Dorothy gently pressures J.R. into gaining acceptance to Yale (which he does) so she can vicariously have his Ivy League experience. While there J.R. befriends Wesley (Rhenzy Feliz, he recently did voice work in Disney’s “Encanto”) and enters into an on-again off-again relationship with the monied Sidney (Briana Middleton).
“The Tender Bar” does an awful lot right and an awful lot wrong. “The Departed” screenwriter William Monahan’s script contains a deluge of snappily dirty dialogue, but his device of jumping back and forth in time makes the proceedings feel disjointed. The sentimentality would’ve been greater had the telling been done chronologically. Health scares for a few characters surprisingly have little emotional heft, but this likely has more to do with the true tale itself.
The crux of what makes “The Tender Bar” work are the performances of Sheridan and especially Affleck. Sheridan seems to get ripped on a bunch, but he has an everyman quality that’s easy to root for. I liked him as a kid in Jeff Nichols’ “Mud.” I’ve responded to his work in recent “X-Men” flicks (he’s the best live action Cyclops IMHO), Steven Spielberg’s “Ready Player One” and Paul Schrader’s “The Card Counter.” I like him here.
It’s a pity that Affleck won’t receive a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination for his work here or in Ridley Scott’s “The Last Duel” – two roles that are most decidedly diametrically opposed. Affleck’s appearance is a bit strange in “The Tender Bar” (things were done with his hair and makeup to make him believably look like Lloyd’s son; coincidentally or not he even kinda takes on an air of Clooney), but his acting is aces and he brings considerable warmth to the picture. His performance convinced me that every kid deserves an Uncle Charlie.
“The Tender Bar” is a hangout movie. How much you enjoy it will likely depend upon how well you like hanging out with J.R., Uncle Charlie and the reprobates who frequent The Dickens. As someone who’s especially close to his uncle (Love you, Uncle Billy!), loved a woman who didn’t love him back as a young man, is a writer and makes his living as a bartender (come see me at Traders Brewing Company and Deviate Brewing on Indy’s northwest side!) – “The Tender Bar” feels tailor-made for me despite its flaws.