‘Tender Bar’ a fascinating Clooney-Affleck convergence

Even as a frequent target of Hollywood’s tabloid machine, Ben Affleck has strung together the best two-ish year stretch of his career as an actor, including the recent Amazon release, “The Tender Bar.”

In contrast, “The Tender Bar” is probably the most anonymous film of George Clooney’s once promising directing career. The complicated dynamic between these two trajectories makes “The Tender Bar” a little more interesting than its generic coming-of-age story probably deserves.

For a while anyway, both Clooney and Affleck seemed poised to become performer/director heavyweights. Clooney made his directorial debut on the Charlie Kaufman-penned, “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind,” based on the mostly imagined life of game show host Chuck Barris. Clooney’s follow-up, the historical drama “Good Night, and Good Luck.” then earned several Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Director and Original Screenplay.

Clooney subsequently expanded into all types of genres, from slapstick sports (“Leatherheads”) to apocalyptic sci-fi (2020’s “The Midnight Sky”). Nothing has matched the critical and commercial success of his first two directorial efforts, and most of his films have lacked much of the personality of both “Confession” and “Good Luck.”

Affleck, meanwhile, rose as a director on three well-received dramatic thrillers — “Gone Baby Gone,” “The Town” and 2012’s “Argo,” which went on to win Best Picture. His follow-up directing effort, 2016’s “Live By Night,” landed as a financial and critical disappointment.

Around the same time as “Live By Night,” Affleck caught heat for his choice to play Batman, though his battle-worn, anguished approach to Bruce Wayne is a highlight of the Zack Snyder era of DC Comics adaptations.

More recently, Affleck leaned into his strengths as an actor, culminating in a career-best turn as an alcoholic basketball coach in 2020’s “The Way Back.”

Ridley Scott’s excellent (and criminally underseen) medieval drama “The Last Duel” also roars to life whenever Affleck appears on screen as an immoral, blond-chined Lothario. He was a co-writer on the film too, probably adding juice to an otherwise smaller role.

Affleck earns top billing in “The Tender Bar,” though the film squarely focuses on the adolescence of JR (Daniel Ranieri as a kid; Tye Sheridan as a young man) as he grows up dreaming of becoming a writer while struggling to connect with his absent father. Affleck plays Uncle Charlie, who runs a bar and allows the boy to hang around the joint and take advice from his various boozing regulars.

Based on the memoir by acclaimed journalist JR Moehringer, “The Tender Bar” frontlines the blunt Uncle Charlie as often as possible, allowing Affleck to command the screen as the rough-around-the-edges-yet-warmhearted father figure JR so desperately needs. Unfortunately, the rest of the movie lacks specificity and often falls into rudderless coming-of-age cliches.

Clooney, who doesn’t appear in the movie, directs “The Tender Bar” with little fanfare and rarely attempts to elevate a nondescript screenplay by William Monahan (an Oscar-winner himself for “The Departed”). The music cues are frequent and obvious, the movie lacks visual personality in its shot composition and production design and the story leans on cringey voice-over narration to punctuate its unfocused dramatic turns.

“The Tender Bar” comes to life whenever Affleck appears, but that can’t help much when the movie isn’t really about Uncle Charlie.

Perhaps, like Affleck, Clooney will take on a few acting projects independent of his directing efforts and reclaim some big screen mojo soon (the actor has only appeared in three movies since 2016, including his own “Midnight Sky”).

Affleck, on the other hand, will hopefully continue his current run of selecting roles that best fit his distinct charm. Even when the movies don’t work, as is the case with “The Tender Bar,” his presence alone is worth watching.

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Tyler Wilson is a member of the International Press Academy and has been writing about movies for Inland Northwest publications since 2000, including a regular column in The Press since 2006. He can be reached at twilson@cdapress.com.