THE TENDER BAR MOVIE REVIEW

Lily Rabe is Dorothy Moehringer and (initially) Daniel Ranieri is her young son in this memoir (remember that word, you’ll hear it a lot in this movie) based on the book by J.R. Moehringer. She’s taken him away from his dead beat Radio DJ dad (Max Martini) and brought him to her father’s house (Christopher Lloyd) to live with the rest of the family. Things are a bit chaotic around the Moehringer homestead but things settle in as Uncle Charlie (Ben Affleck) becomes a new father figure for the kid. Ol’ Charlie runs a popular neighborhood bar with a literary theme and although he certainly wasn’t the ‘follow the traditional scholarly path’ type, he’s insanely well-read, charming as all get-out, and rough around the edges street smart in exactly the way you can picture Ben Affleck playing it. Eventually, time moves on and Tye Sheridan takes over the role of the son as he begins his own life but it was Affleck that Chris, Frank, Alan, and Mike fixated on here. Belly up to the bar, sip on a whiskey, and let them tell you all about it.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE/TRAILER

DIRECTED BY: George Clooney

STARRING: Ben Affleck, Tye Sheridan, Daniel Ranieri, Ron Livingston, Lily Rabe, Christopher Lloyd, Max Martini, Sondra James, Michael Braun, Matthew Delamater, Max Casella, Rhenzy Feliz, Ivan Leung, Briana Middleton

 

YOUR REVIEWERS

 

Christopher Lawrence Cox (Founder, Da Boss)

Born in the wilds of northern Virginia, Chris managed to put all of his survival skills to use and barely escaped with his life to Austin Texas in 1992 where ever since he’s dabbled in everything from plumber’s assistant to sandwich maker, from band to bar management. An opportunity to see theatrical release films for free by becoming a critic on a local public access show called “The Reel Deal” turned into a full-time job when Chris and his friends decided to take it to the internet. They built the site Spill.com, adding multiple podcasts and animated features, to no small amount of success. During this time, a fortuitous friendship sprung up between Chris and young Brian Salisbury, who was also a local film critic, and they merged their forces of will, and their laundry list of ideas for shows, to eventually build this community of critics. While Brian eventually followed his heart to a new family, Chris continues on with a cast of colorful folks from all over the country (and a few others). You can also check out Chris in his videocast, along with Martin Thomas and Danni Danger, that One Of Us does with our friends at Bell of Lost Souls: Crossover Event. He also regularly guests on the video game website Rage Select. Follow Chris on Twitter and Facebook and check out his Amazon Wish List.

 

 

Frank Calvillo (Highly Suspect Reviews, Screener Squad)

Born and raised in South Texas, Frank currently lives in Austin and has been in love with movies ever since his father showed him some Three Stooges shorts when he was five years old. Today he loves all kinds of film, regardless of era, country, budget or genre. He believes every film has an audience and is at least one person’s favorite movie. After writing for Sight & Sound and Slackerwood, he now writes for Cinapse where his increasingly random taste in all flavors of cinema (from Rashomon to Mars Attacks!) continues to thrive.