The Tender Bar Review

 

The Tender Bar is a coming-of-age drama movie based of the 2005 memoir of the same name by J.R. Moehringer. The film is produced by Amazon Studios and Smokehouse Pictures and distributed by Amazon Studios. The Tender Bar is written by William Monahan and directed by George Clooney.

The story is it's 1972 and 9-year-old J.R. moves into his grandfather's old house in Long Island, New York searching for a father figure. He eventual meets his uncle Charlie, who introduces him to his very colorful regulars who come to his bar. As time passes J.R. is trying to achieve his dream of becoming a writer.

Initial Reaction

I'm gonna give a short and sweet reason of why I wanted to see this one. Much like The Midnight Sky George Clooney is directing it, and I wanted to see what else he can do. And Ben Affleck is it, and I'm curious what else he's doing besides Batman.

Cons

The only thing I disliked about the movie was the voice over. Yeah we kinda have a narrated with an older J.R., but sometimes it comes and goes. So it really felt pointless to have, when for the most part we're not gonna be hearing from it.

Middle Ground

One mix feeling I had had to do with George Clooney's directing. Sure everything's while shot and overall it looks nice. But looking back I can't really say there was anything that made me go "Right there! That's the best shot of the entire film!" Another gray area had to do with the pacing. The first and third half of the movie is really good. But once we get to that second half, you can almost feel the hour long runtime.

Pros

One positive I can rightfully give for The Tender Bar is the humor. There were actually some pretty funny moments in here, and I really enjoyed them, and they helped lighting the mood. What I think people will also enjoy from the movie is J.R.'s story. I think there's going to be a lot of people who connect with not really knowing your real dad, wanting a father figure in your life, and kind of struggling a bit with a dream you have in mind. The last thing I'll give the movie credit for is the performances. They do a fantastic job making the movie even better. Especially Ben Affleck as Uncle Charlie. The guy truly was the show stealer in this, and I really wanted to see more of the uncle throughout this.

In all honesty The Tender Bar is pretty decent. It's got good humor, I think there's some people who'll connect to J.R.'s story, and the performances (especially from Affleck) are really good. Could've used more work on directing and pacing, but it really wasn't enough to bring the quality down. The only thing I didn't care for was the voice over. That could've been easily edited out.

My final rating is Okay.

Overall I kinda liked this one. However that's going to do it for me. Come back on Thursday, Jan 13th for my Underrated Films review of Thank You for Smoking. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.