The Tender Bar

We saw this at an Amazon premiere at our local movie theater. I enjoyed the story of JR growing up and learning about becoming a man from his Uncle Charlie, since his own father is absent. JR navigates his way through life and ends up attending Yale and getting a job as a writer. Charlie teaches him to respect women, fosters his love of reading and writing, teaches him to be responsible with money, and other lessons. I wish there was a bit more character development of a few of the bar patrons - just a little one-on-one interaction with each of them with JR would have added to the story. Overall, a nice story told well, and worth watching.

Review By Kamal K I enjoyed this film. The acting is very good. Ben Affleck did a great job as the uncle. The story was not consistently well written. This could be a re-write and stand to do better. You could take out the girlfriend relationship and the story would still stand. The entire college experience was weak. Given a 5 rating, I would still recommend this film.

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source: The Tender Bar

The good: the start is quite nice to watch, because we get to see a poor kid's dysfunctional family close up. The kid's father has left him and he and his mother are on the streets an have to move in with their grandfather, who farts all day. Ben Affleck (funny uncle) stays at grandpa's house as well and teaches the fatherless kid how to become a man with some wise advices and some more ludicrous funny advices... It's an endearing, lighthearted, funny start. So far so good... The mother's biggest wish is that her young son is gonna make it to the most prestigeous law school in America when he is 18. Out of poverty. Being self supporting. Nice dream, good mother. The bad part: the second part of this movie is years later, when the kid has turned 18 and is finally getting into Yale law school. From that moment on this story kinda tanks and implodes. Gone are the many interesting characters, gone is the great portrayal of this family life. Everything is focussed on the kid attending this posh school, which is rather tedious to watch. Ben Affleck only plays a supporting role, whose screentime diminishes even further in the second part of the story. Not terribly bad, simply lacking spark and punch...especially during the quite tedious second part, which many other reviewers also are rightfully complaining about...

Wow, this was a pointless movie! I thought with a 6.8 it couldn't be that bad but boy was I wrong! Absolutely nothing happens in this movie and it just ends! The acting from everyone is pretty terrible. The young kid in this doesn't look anything like the grown version played by Tye Sheridan who's just horrible in this! Not an ounce of emotion, just a big dud. Just like the movie! Don't waste your time!

The Tender Bar is a series of disconnected vignettes, first involving young JR, and then college-and-a-few-years-after JR. There's little continuity and an unexpected (and odd) jump between the two ages. In so many ways, this plays like the real JR wanting to tell you ten scenes from his life, with little regard for whether this would make an interesting, or even watchable, movie. It left me wondering who paired the book down to the movie. And that's before we get to all the mediocre production choices - Long Islanders bowling candlepins, which don't exist in Long Island, young JR and older JR don't look much like each other, JR cursing out his father without so much as attending to the person who inspired the cursing, sound editing that loses the end of the sentence every five minutes or so, and the random scene choices and ending that seems no better place to stop than many other moments in JR's life. There are lots of movies that disappoint me, but I nonetheless think were worth watching. The Tender Bar is just a waste of time. Ben Affleck doing a decent job in a supporting role, and a cute kid reminiscent of The Wonder Years, do not make a good movie.

An enjoyable nostalgic trip to the seventies.abley directed by George Clooney.the young boy at the beginning is very good,as the actor playing the older self Ben Affleck equips himself above the usual standard.the men in the film do come across as a sorry bunch,with women being shown as the stronger sex fatherhood comes in for a bit of a battering but there are some good guys out there.not a bad movie.

Very disappointed in this film; was looking forward to seeing but it lacked a lot. Haven't read the book but the screenplay is the problem here & bad editing. Don't feel this was George's fault but certainly not his best film. First half was fine but loses steam & viewer interest after that. Ty Sheridan was great in Mud but he grew up & now he can't act. The only one who rises above the script was Ben Affleck - maybe Ben & Matt should have written the screenplay.

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.