The last days of 2021 are upon everyone, and movie executives who waited all year to release their films in hopes the holiday season would boost theater attendance are ready to show their hand. And somewhere between all the noise generated by blockbusters ranging from "The Matrix Resurrections" to "Spider-Man: No Way Home" is a little nugget of a film called "The Tender Bar."
This movie is an adaptation of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist JR Moehringer's 2005 memoir of the same name. George Clooney serves, not as the lead actor, but as the film's director. And he does a fine job navigating a low-key script filled with heartfelt characters that manage to live more in two or three scenes than some characters do in an entire film.
JR is the central character of the story, portrayed by Daniel Ranieri as a child and Tye Sheridan as a college student. His mother, Dorothy (Lily Rabe), takes young JR and moves back into her father's house with other members of the family. Viewers learn early on JR's absentee father is a radio DJ in New York, and everyone in Dorothy's family hates him.
The patriarch of the household is JR's grandfather, played by an effortlessly charming Christopher Lloyd. He's an ornery old cuss who pretends to be angry his children have all moved back into his house as adults, but the truth is he seems to secretly enjoy having all his family under one roof.
He apparently understands Greek and English and is constantly chided by Dorothy for being stingy. Despite this accusation, his best scene in the film is attending a father/son breakfast with young JR at his school. He gets dressed up in his best suit and charms JR's teacher with an intellect he only brings out during special occasions. In other scenes he's busy passing gas into his old recliner apparently because he can. It is his house, after all.
It's scenes like this that serve as puzzle pieces "The Tender Bar" uses to show JR's life growing up with a father who only appears when he's forced to, to pay child support, or to convince himself for one night he's giving up drinking.
Ranieri does a fine job portraying a kid who desperately yearns for the attention of his cool old man and spends hours listening to him on the radio. But he's at his best when paired with the real star of the film, Uncle Charlie, played by Ben Affleck. Some might find it amusing one Batman is the movie's best character while the other directs him. But Affleck really goes the extra mile to be this charismatic stand-in for a male role model in JR's life.
Uncle Charlie runs a bar called The Dickinson and is fond of literature, filling the shelves behind the bar not just with alcohol, but books as well. When teaching JR the basics of poker (Five-card stud), Uncle Charlie lays down a basic tenet to the boy: he'll never lie to JR. And the first hard truth JR receives from his uncle is he stinks at sports.
When Uncle Charlie asks JR what else he likes to do, the boy says he enjoys reading. And, with Uncle Charlie encouraging him 100% of the way, JR sets out to read every book he can and to one day become a writer. He begins with assembling a family newspaper Uncle Charlie reads and boldly proclaims the kid has "it."
Affleck shines in one of his best performances as a stand-up guy and bartender who teaches JR how to be a man of a nontoxic variety, steering him away from the path his biological father took in life. All throughout JR's journey, Affleck gives him these rules of life like you don't drink unless you have your [expletive] together. If your affairs aren't in order, you don't drink. He teaches JR it's never appropriate to hit a woman, even if she stabs you. Uncle Charlie even pays for the application fee when JR applies to Yale and guides him through all aspects of life from writing to love.
He's the uncle everyone wishes they had growing up. Affleck really drives the movie to another level of quality. And he does it all with this cigarette-smoking, sailor-swearing demeanor the star owns perfectly. The man wears the persona like a pair of comfortable pajamas, and it fits perfectly. It's a far cry from "Jersey Girl."
The better parts of "The Tender Bar" are spent with young JR, but that's not to say Sheridan does a bad job in the role as a college student struggling to cope with the emotional damage his father left him and to find his identity as a writer.
And when he's not hopelessly in love with and making love to a classmate named Sidney (Briana Middleton), JR is taking sage wisdom from his best friend Wesley (Rhenzy Feliz), who keeps trying to get his buddy to realize Sidney will never love him, and he's looking for fulfillment in all the wrong places.
In between all that, JR rides the train to Yale and meets an endearing Irish priest, who might have been half as charming if he wasn't Irish. And the man of the cloth takes an interest in JR's life, maybe even offering him a little advice in his own right.
"The Tender Bar" is really a movie about a boy who lacked a father and was made all the better for it, because it put him on a path to being surrounded by people who love him and are eager to help in any way they can.
Clooney subtly reveals the opposite train tracks of life for JR's father. It's a life rampant with alcoholism, physical abuse of women, and a chip on his shoulder that everyone's out to get him. JR's final confrontation with his father is emotional, resounding, and finally gives him the push he needs to get busy writing and establishing his identity.
"The Tender Bar" is perfectly personable and uses the everyday layers of life to their full advantage. When audiences get done watching Spider-Man and "The King's Man," hopefully they'll sit down to watch JR become a man, with a lovable Uncle Charlie there to help him each step of the way.