Review: The Tender Bar (2021)

The Tender Bar

Rating

Director

George Clooney

Screenplay

William Monahan (Book: J.R. Moehringer)

Length

1h 44m

Starring

Ben Affleck, Tye Sheridan, Daniel Ranieri, Lily Rabe, Christopher Lloyd, Max Martini

MPAA Rating

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Review

Certain directors find their niche in taking audiences into the past, their films exploring myriad facets of growing up during those periods. George Clooney tries his hand at telling such a story as he explores growing up in the non-nuclear family in the 1970s and 1980s.

JR (Daniel Ranieri) is moving with his mother (Lily Rabe) back into his grandfather’s (Christopher Lloyd) home. They are running from a bad situation. At least it’s one his mother is escaping. JR is perhaps too young to fully understand what’s going on. His father (Max Martini) is a prominent disc jockey in New York City, but he barely knows him. With the move back to New Jersey, JR comes of age under the guiding hand of his bar-owning Uncle Charlie (Ben Affleck) who teaches him life lessons his father never gave him.

The film takes place in two decades, the 1970s in which he grew up and the 1980s in which he went to college. As the grown JR, Tye Sheridan gets the bulk of the narrative push as he pursues a law degree at the behest of his mother while freelancing as a journalist at the New York Times. His on-again, off-again relationship with Sidney (Briana Middleton) reflects his upbringing, his persistence in pursuing what and who he wants, whether it be a career as a writer or a young man in love.

Oscar-winning screenwriter William Monahan (The Departed) adapted JR Moehringer’s biographical novel for the big screen and keeps the relationships in focus through the course of the back-and-forth narrative that brings each of adult JR’s decisions into focus as a result of the life lessons his uncle gave him years earlier. Charlie was the first figure in Charlie’s life, other than his mother, to instill confidence in the young man for the many years between his childhood and his collegiate life. Monahan’s script keeps that relationship light and relevant without adding a veneer of preachiness.

His adept script gives Clooney plenty of room to work with as a director and the unassuming narrative plays out effectively over the course of a breezy 1 hour 46 minutes. He’s aided immeasurably by a terrific cast giving him career-best work with Affleck showing the most maturity in terms of acting talent from his questionable early years to his more evocative middle age. Affleck plays Charlie with warmth and compassion, showing the young JR that being a man doesn’t require bravado or artifice. His authenticity and learned demeanor guide the protagonist and the audience along for a familial journey of discovery.

Rabe, Lloyd, and Martini provide able support while Sheridan gives a self-effacing, confident performance as the young man clinging to the notion that his father wasn’t as bad as his mother remembered, but ultimately having to face the reality of the situation. His approach to dating and relationships is considerate and generous, putting to work his uncle’s tutelage on such subjects. He grows into a conscientious young man who isn’t afraid to mature and sacrifice when necessary to achieve his aims.

The Tender Bar and its multilevel meaning is Clooney’s best film since his Best Picture Oscar nominee Good Night, and Good Luck. While he might never again make a film that holds a candle to that sophomore outing, if he can continue to make these honest, genial films, he will eventually leave behind a wonderful filmography for future audiences to enjoy.