The Tender Bar

An easygoing movie based on a true story about a kid who needs a father and a kindly uncle who steps in to teach him how to be a man. 

It’s not overly ambitious but it hits every pitch and understands what it’s like to grow up poor, with an absent alcoholic father. 

I connected with it given that I too was a kid who wanted to grow up to be a writer who had an alcoholic father. 

In my case, the father played the dual role of also being the parent who demanded I go to college and supported my dream of being a writer. 

People are big and they contain multitudes. 

But there is a scene late in the movie where the alcoholic father is being mildly abusive and I have seen that one play out in real life. 

Given my own past, I strongly connected with this. It might not hit you as hard. 

Ben Affleck is really good here. And everyone else is game. George Clooney directs it with confidence though it probably won’t win any awards for style. 

Not too long, doesn’t ask too much of you, and nearly every scene works on its own terms. The movie equivalent of seeing your minor league team win a close one on a nice summer night.