The Tender Bar: what is this new movie with Ben Affleck?

George Clooney lands on Amazon

Great American actor, George Clooney has been omnipresent on screen since the early 1980s. After being revealed in The Return of the Killer Tomatoes, then in the series Emergency room, George Clooney has a series of successes like One night in hell, the saga Ocean’s or even more recently Gravity and Money Monster.

Corn George Clooney is also a talented director. He started behind the camera in 2002 with Confession of a dangerous man. An experience that he greatly appreciated since, subsequently, the American comedian has directed seven other feature films. His new film, the eighth therefore, The Tender Bar, was released on Amazon Prime Video on January 7th. Focus on his latest production.

What’s this The Tender Bar ?

Directed by George Clooney so, The Tender Bar brings together a rather attractive cast led by Ben Affleck, Tye Sheridan, Daniel Ranieri and Christopher Llyod (the inimitable Doc of the saga Back to the future). The story is adapted from the eponymous novel by JR Moehringer. This last, born in 1964, is an American journalist and novelist. Famous in the field, he notably won the Pulitzer Prize in 2000. Graduated from Yale University in 1986, he decides to publish his memoirs in 2005 in a work entitled The Tender Bar. He tells about his childhood until the early twenties and discusses his family, love and professional experiences. A way to tell the story of a young person’s coming of age in the 1980s.

George Clooney therefore decided to produce and direct a film adaptation of The Tender Bar. After the critical failure of Midnight in the universe, released in 2020 on NetflixGeorge Clooney has therefore returned to a more down-to-earth cinema, which nevertheless speaks once again of the passage of time. But the project actually dates back to 2013. At the time, it was Théodore Melfi, the director of Shadow Figures, who was in pole position to stage The Tender Bar. But things really came to fruition in 2020 when Amazon bought back the rights to the book.

The Ben Affleck case

The Tender Bar it is also the occasion to find Ben Affleck. The comedian, who was also recently on the bill for The Last Duel, loved working with George Clooney. In any case, this is what he said at a press conference:

Cinema is, in essence, a collaborative medium between the script, the director and the actors. I was very lucky. I had loved working with George and Grant (Clooney and Heslov, producer of Argo). Every now and then something extraordinary happens, as it has happened here.

At any rate, the film is a delightful success. George Clooney paints a touching portrait of this young man simultaneously embodied by Daniel Ranieri and Tye Sheridan. It offers a tender and relevant look on childhood and adolescence, on the construction of oneself and one’s future. Ben Affleck is deeply endearing in the skin of the nice uncle, while George Clooney is back in shape, especially after Midnight in the universe.