The Tender Bar Review

gamerant.com:

The Tender Bar isn’t a typical slice of life/coming-of-age film. It doesn’t try to emotionally manipulate its audience with shocking character deaths or overly saccharine moments where two people find common ground. Rather, it’s an adaptation of a memoir that merely looks to highlight that, at one time, people could be flawed but still inherently good. That a place like a bar was as much about comradery and, strangely, family than it was about indulging one’s vices.

Based on J.R. Moehringer’s memoir of the same name, The Tender Bar highlights the formative years of J.R. from late grade school through to college graduate and early post-grad work. J.R. and his mother (Lily Rabe) move back to Long Island to live with his grandfather (Christopher Lloyd), grandmother (Sondra James), and Uncle Charlie (Ben Affleck). Following separation from J.R.’s neglectful, abusive, and alcoholic father (Max Martini), the mom sees returning home as a defeat but young J.R. (Daniel Rieri) sees it as a new adventure.

While many of the figures in J.R.’s life could be considered stereotypical – the cool uncle, the curmudgeonly grandpa, the overprotective mother – The Tender Bar never plays up those qualities. Affleck’s Charlie establishes a set of rules for J.R. that are as much about personal success as they are integral for building relationships. He’s as foul-mouthed as they come and unafraid from swearing around J.R. but there is a wholesome side to him that cuts through.

The Tender Bar’s greatest strength is its cast, who can portray a sense of morally good without being cookie-cutter. The grandpa character, for example, gripes about having his kids under his roof, never passes up a chance to pass gas, but still cares for his family under