George Clooney’s eighth film as a director is the polar opposite of his seventh. Whereas The Midnight Sky was cold, epic-in-scale sci-fi, The Tender Bar, based on the 2005 memoir by journalist J.R. Moehringer, is a warm, intimate, coming-of-age story (of course there’s a voiceover). It’s a film about daddy issues and father figures, filled with things that are rites of passage in life — that first alcoholic drink, job interviews — but not so much in movies these days. While it never packs a punch, it’s a well-played, welcome reminder that modern movies can be human-sized too.
To the propulsive dad-rock of Golden Earring’s ‘Radar Love’, the story starts in 1973 as nine-year-old J.R. (Daniel Ranieri) is being driven by his mother Dorothy (Lily Rabe, excellent) back to her father’s (Christopher Lloyd) crowded house. J.R. soon comes under the wing of Uncle Charlie (Ben Affleck), who encourages his nephew to read, and tutors the lad in the ‘male sciences’ (which boil down to ‘listen to your mother’). Bathing the house in a nostalgic glow, Clooney mounts sensual vignettes of boisterous family life, leaning heavily on his ’70s record collection — a driving montage set to King Harvest’s ‘Dancing In The Moonlight’ — without anything approaching drama. J.R.’s dad (Max Martini), a deadbeat DJ known as The Voice, turns up as a potential fly in the convivial ointment, and a serious illness threatens to add some gravitas, but the Sturm und Drang never really arrives. It’s all light-hearted and enjoyable, but undeniably slight.
The film benefits from Clooney’s obvious affection for his characters. He wants to hang out with them, > and you will too.
The lightweight feel doesn’t really change as Tye Sheridan takes over as J.R., when he is accepted at Yale to read law. Here the movie concentrates on an under-cooked relationship between J.R. and Sidney (Brianna Middleton), a privileged student who is happy to sleep with him but never commit. As J.R. inches closer to his writer dream by snagging a job at The New York Times, even his work travails don’t register as engaging obstacles. In this respect, The Tender Bar does share something with The Midnight Sky. They both deal in weightlessness.
Where the film really scores is in its performances. Ranieri is a revelation as young J.R. and Sheridan adds swagger and likability to the older incarnation, but this is Affleck’s movie. Whether it is verbally slapping down J.R.’s school psychologist or dispensing life advice (such as reading philosophy at university because there is never a wrong answer), you believe him as a well-read, intelligent guy who hasn’t applied those qualities to give himself a better life, Affleck spinning charm and the world-weary quality he found in The Way Back on a dime. The film also benefits from Clooney’s obvious affection for his characters. He wants to hang out with them, and you will too. It’s just a shame he couldn’t ally some of that affability to something more textured and challenging.
