‘The Tender Bar’ Trailer: George Clooney Directs Ben Affleck In Amazon’s Coming-Of-Age Drama

In Amazon Studios’ The Tender Bar, you’ve got the combined A-list might of director George Clooney and star Ben Affleck, and surprisingly it’s not some swaggeringly cool film ala Ocean’s Eleven. Instead, you’ve got a coming-of-age story about a fatherless boy who looks up to his bartender uncle Charlie, played by Affleck…

“In life, you gotta have ‘it.’ If you don’t have ‘it,’ you’ll never get it. And I say you got it”, Charlie tells the kid, J.R., played first by Daniel Ranieri and then later as a teen by Tye Sheridan.

The film is an adaptation of J.R. Moehringer’s 2005 memoir about growing up in Long Island, cared for by a single mother played by Lily Rabe. Also in the cast are Christopher Lloyd, Sondra James, Briana Middleton, Max Casella, Rhenzy Feliz, and Max Martini. The Departed writer William Monahan adapted Moehringer’s book.

This is part of Clooney’s continued turn towards streaming, after directing last year’s quickly-forgotten The Midnight Sky for Netflix. It’s his eighth film behind the camera, overall. Affleck is coming off rave reviews for his performance in The Way Back, and can be seen this week in Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel.

The Tender Bar opens in NY and LA on December 17th, followed by a national rollout on December 22nd and finally Amazon Prime Video beginning January 7th.

Travis Hopson
Travis Hopson has been reviewing movies before he even knew there was such a thing. Having grown up on a combination of bad '80s movies, pro wrestling, comic books, and hip-hop, Travis is uniquely positioned to geek out on just about everything under the sun. A vampire who walks during the day and refuses to sleep, Travis is the co-creator and lead writer for Punch Drunk Critics. He is also a contributor to Good Morning Washington, WBAL Morning News, and WETA Around Town. In the five minutes a day he's not working, Travis is also a voice actor, podcaster, and Twitch gamer. Travis is a voting member of the Critics Choice Association (CCA), Washington DC Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA), and Late Night programmer for the Lakefront Film Festival.