Wednesday 3 January 2024

The Tender Bar (2021 George Clooney)

From a chaotic family emerges a writer. Writers need experience to write. Good writers need chaotic family lives to draw from. True? No. My evidence - the reasonably non chaotic life of William Boyd. OK, his dad died when he was a young man, and he experienced warfare in Nigeria, but.. What's my point? I think it's well made, anyway.

Young Tye Sheridan is in love with the wrong woman - so we're back in The Apartment territory. (She is Briana Middleton.) Uncle Charlie / surrogate father Ben Affleck knows this and tells him - he's always been there for him. I love the intelligent sense coming out of this man, the way he confronts his school psychiatrist for example. It's a very well written film, by William Monohan, from J.R. (or should that be JR?) Moehringer memoir. His mum is Lily Rabe and Daniel Ranieri plays his younger self. With Christopher Lloyd, Max Martini (abusive father), Rhenxy (that's a good name but in fact it's Rhenzy) Feliz (college friend), Max Casella (bar patron). In its depiction of uneducated but smart working class people it reminds me appropriately enough of Good Will Hunting.

Shot by Martin Ruhe, edited by Tanya Swerling, production design Kalina Ivanov, costumes Jenny Eagan.


Good soundtrack of seventies and eighties hits makes sense.

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