As watchable as it is missable, “The Tender Bar” is a pleasantly anecdotal amble down memory lane which features amusing one-liners, nostalgic production design, warm, soft, golden-brown lighting, and an efficient if anonymous directorial style: Clooney’s one flourish is a split-screen sequence over the closing credits. John Oliver on Earning Our Attention, 'Last Week Tonight' Plans, and Landing George Clooney - Q&Aįrom 'Nymphomaniac' to 'Shortbus,' a History of Unsimulated Sex Scenes in 32 FilmsĢ0 Nude Scenes That Show How Movies Have Busted Taboos 'Deep Water' Snail Wrangler Says Ben Affleck Was 'Exceptionally Good' at Handling the Gastropods And finally, there is the undeniable point that becoming a writer - i.e., doing lots of reading and typing - is altogether less cinematic than becoming a gangster or an astronaut. Then there are the embarrassingly self-congratulatory scenes in which various relatives and colleagues pronounce that the lad is a “prodigy” who produces “outstanding” and “terrific” work. First, there is the inherent lack of tension: we’re watching a film based on a book, so we know that the narrator will reach his goal. Moehringer, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, “The Tender Bar” has all of those annoying aspects. Other viewers may dread all the annoying aspects of this particularly precious sub-genre of the non-fiction coming-of-age comedy drama.

Some viewers may be thrilled by this statement, and desperate to see how on earth the tyke can fulfill his literary ambitions. “That was the moment,” a voiceover informs us, “I knew I wanted to be a writer.” In keeping with its name, it has shelves of dusty leather-bound novels, one of which Charlie hands to his nephew. In George Clooney’s eighth film as director, “ The Tender Bar,” the hero’s Uncle Charlie ( Ben Affleck) manages a thriving neighborhood watering hole called the Dickens.

Body of lies movie fact of fiction