The Tender Bar

"Between the ones who love you and the ones who leave you is the journey of a lifetime."

2021 1h 44m EN

👍

6.6

SOLID

★6.6TMDB · 633

Drama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

JR is a fatherless boy growing up in the glow of a bar where the bartender, his Uncle Charlie, is the sharpest and most colorful of an assortment of quirky and demonstrative father figures. As the boy’s determined mother struggles to provide her son with opportunities denied to her — and leave the dilapidated home of her outrageous if begrudgingly supportive father — JR begins to gamely, if not always gracefully, pursue his romantic and professional dreams, with one foot persistently placed in Uncle Charlie’s bar.

“Between the ones who love you and the ones who leave you is the journey of a lifetime.”

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Cast

Ben Affleck
Charlie Maguire
Tye Sheridan
JR Maguire
Daniel Ranieri
Young JR Maguire
Lily Rabe
Dorothy Maguire
Christopher Lloyd
Grandpa Maguire
Max Martini
The Voice, JR's father
Rhenzy Feliz
Wesley
Briana Middleton
Sidney

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: George Clooney
Writers: William Monahan
Languages: Russian, English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 5 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: Russian, English.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by George Clooney, shot by Martin Ruhe. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Dara Taylor. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Tanya Swerling shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Ben Affleck and Tye Sheridan and Daniel Ranieri carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Between the ones who love you and the ones who leave you is the journey of a lifetime.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt3108894 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

George Clooney directs. Martin Ruhe behind the camera. Dara Taylor scores. Tanya Swerling cuts. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in Russian, English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Released 5 years ago.
2Dialogue crosses 2 languages: Russian, English.
3Directed by George Clooney, shot by Martin Ruhe. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by Dara Taylor. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Editor Tanya Swerling shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Ben Affleck and Tye Sheridan and Daniel Ranieri carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "Between the ones who love you and the ones who leave you is the journey of a lifetime.".
8IMDB entry: tt3108894 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

The technical file

Cinematography: Martin Ruhe
Original score: Dara Taylor
Editing: Tanya Swerling
Production design: Kalina Ivanov
Costume design: Jenny Eagan
Makeup / hair: Trish Seeney
VFX supervisor: Matt Kasmir
Sound: Todd Beckett
Runtime: 104 min · 1h 44m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: The Tender Bar (2021)

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George Clooney

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

r96sk2022-03-16
★ 6/10
So very plain. To be honest: I found <em>'The Tender Bar'</em> to be a bore. I felt like I had seen this film before, such is the predictable and monotonous nature of the story. It almost felt like a (poorer) rerun of 2020's <em>'<a href="https://letterboxd.com/film/hillbilly-elegy/" rel="nofollow">Hillbilly Elegy</a>'</em>. I will say, though, that Ben Affleck gives a very good performance in this, to the point that I actually would've liked to have seen a story revolving around him and his character - as opposed to who this 2021 flick is about. Aside from Affleck, I didn't care for any of the other performances and therefore any of the other characters. It's not even a bad film, it's just so, so boring - for me, anyway.
CinemaSerf2022-03-27
★ 6/10
It's not often I find myself writing this, but Ben Affleck is comfortably the best thing about this otherwise rather lacklustre adaptation of JR Moehringer's autobiographical coming of age tale. It depicts the story of his childhood - through the eyes of the engaging young Daniel Ranieri - before he heads to Yale in the guise of Tye Sheridan. The first half hour, maybe, is quite entertaining. This young lad living with his mother (his selfish father is estranged from them, living the mobile life of a late night radio talk show host) in the home of his mildly eccentric grandfather (Christopher Lloyd) and their home is a lively, buzzing environment in which the youngster thrives. Chief amongst the residents is his charismatic, worldly-wise uncle "Charlie" (Affleck) who runs a local bar populated with a decent, working-class clientele who take to the young man and encourage his obvious academic talents. That half hour peters out, though, and the rest of the film is really a rather uninspiring story of a young man, his "first love", a youth who is looking for some sort of positive male "role model". I find Sheridan a rather sterile actor. Sure, he is pretty, but he doesn't ever stand out with his performances. They are all just a little bit by the numbers, and here is no different. He speak words of passion, but his acting conveys none of that adequately on screen. The soundtrack is left to do much of the heavy lifting when it comes to dialogue, and it feels longer than the 1¾ hours it takes to watch. I am glad I watched it - on a big screen in London with just one other person - but I don't think I would ever bother watching it again.
tmdb280390232022-08-28
★ 1/10
This film, written by William Monahan and directed by George Clooney on autopilot is yet another shallow glimpse into the formative years of an wannabe writer. This is hardly virgin territory, having already been thoroughly covered by the likes of Unstrung Heroes, Almost Famous, and Neil Simon’s ‘Eugene Trilogy’, to mention but a few examples. J.R. Maguire (Daniel Ranieri, Tye Sheridan), based on American novelist and journalist J. R. Moehringer, grows up in an eccentric family straight from Central Casting — we have the long-suffering single mother, the deadbeat dad, the curmudgeonly grandfather with a secret heart of gold, and the cool uncle who doubles as a father figure. The only thing, and it’s nothing to sneeze at, that The Tender Bar has going for it is that the grandfather and uncle are played by Christopher Lloyd Ben Affleck. “When you’re 11, you want an Uncle Charlie,” says J.R. I can’t disagree, especially considering that Uncle Charlie owns The Dickens Bar, its shelves filled with booze and books. Now, this and no other is the movie they should have made: one wherein Ben Affleck is a self-taught philosopher barman who doles out drinks and folk wisdom in equal parts, and Christopher Lloyd is his best customer. Unfortunately what we have here is such hackneyed material that Affleck’s and Lloyd’s combined efforts can hardly raise it above the commonplace (how’s this for a cliché: to illustrate the fickleness of J.R.’S stereotypically unattainable romantic interest, the soundtrack breaks into into Paul Simon’s “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover”), whence it crumbles back whenever they’re off-screen. It doesn’t help either that the potential shown by Sheridan in Mud and Joe apparently didn’t survive the actor’s puberty. In these two films Sheridan could boast of going toe-to-toe with Matthew McConaughey and Nic Cage; here Affleck acts circles around him. Worst of all, we hear from a number of people how good a writer J.R. is, but we’re never given any concrete reason for that — only platitudes, such as invoking some ineffable je ne sais quoi or just unilaterally deciding that “You are a writer the moment you say you are.” What he fails to realize is that talking business and meaning business are two very different things.