The Tender Bar
Amazon Studios | Release Date: December 17, 2021 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
53
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 40 Critic Reviews
Positive:
12
Mixed:
25
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Film ThreatAlan NgDec 22, 2021
I liked The Tender Bar for its simple story and fantastic performances. But, honestly, it works best as a straight-to-streaming title, as it hits familiar beats and feels small in scope. Clooney has concocted cinematic comfort food. Read full review
80
We Got This CoveredMartin CarrDec 20, 2021
Ben Affleck anchors this surprisingly complex drama with a career best performance, which sees director George Clooney turn his attention to the importance of friendships in life. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinDec 16, 2021
It’s such an astute and warmhearted journey that it’s hard not to succumb to its underdog charms. Read full review
75
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanDec 21, 2021
Tender also is an apt description for the gently heartwarming tone of this appealingly low-key, faded Kodachrome coming-of-age story, capably directed by Clooney from a screenplay by William Monahan (“The Departed”). Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperDec 21, 2021
The Tender Bar is unabashedly sentimental — it’s one of those movies about writers told from the point of view of the writer that romanticizes everything about writing — but Clooney’s sure-handed direction and pitch-perfect attention to the 1970s and 1980s period-piece material, combined with the warm and relatable performances, make for classic comfort-movie formula. Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony LaneJan 10, 2022
The gist of the critical response has been that The Tender Bar follows a well-worn path. Fair enough, but is that such a sin? (You should try the new Matrix movie. Now, that’s worn.) What counts is the firmness of the tread, and Clooney sets a careful but unloitering pace. Read full review
70
IGNTara Bennett Dec 21, 2021
The Tender Bar is a coming-of-age dramedy that sails on the backs of the exceptional ensemble cast. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenOct 11, 2021
If it struggles to find a rhythm, especially in the early going, there’s no question that it sends you off on a gentle high. Read full review
70
VarietyPeter DebrugeOct 11, 2021
It’s not easy being Ben Affleck, by which I mean, there aren’t many actors who seem so comfortably themselves on-screen, and now that Affleck has reached middle age, he’s capable of bringing fresh depth to his performances. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyJoshua RothkopfDec 21, 2021
Affleck and Clooney make sense as collaborators; both of them became directors to get out of the way of their public images. Hopefully, the next time they decide to work together, they'll lean even further into the intimacies of a setting like the Dickens, a universe unto itself. Read full review
63
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldDec 22, 2021
The movie isn’t terrible, but too often it feels Hollywood-bland; a missed opportunity, served neat. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeMark FeeneyDec 22, 2021
It’s amiable and unpretentious, if also slack and diffuse. Read full review
60
Screen RantMae AbdulbakiJan 10, 2022
Held together by the cast’s chemistry and strong character dynamics, The Tender Bar is a touching film about growing up and the people who shape you. Read full review
60
TimeStephanie ZacharekDec 17, 2021
The Tender Bar is generally a sweet, affectionate film, it deflates whenever J.R. isn’t in Manhasset—because that means there’s no Ben Affleck. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. ScottDec 16, 2021
It’s not the kind of movie that will knock you out, but it won’t leave you with a headache and a dry mouth, either. It’s a generous pour and a mellow buzz. Read full review
60
EmpireIan FreerDec 14, 2021
What The Tender Bar lacks in dramatic heft and originality, it makes up for in warmth, geniality and a clutch of great performances — chiefly Ben Affleck, who turns a stock uncle character into a memorable mentor. Read full review
60
The IndependentClarisse LoughreyOct 14, 2021
The Tender Bar is uneventful. But its performances have such an easy, lived-in quality that it wouldn’t be fair to call it inauthentic – just a little rosy in its outlook, perhaps. Read full review
60
The TelegraphTim RobeyOct 14, 2021
When Clooney gets this cast riffing off each other in boozy hangout mode, the movie skips along surprisingly well for all its so-what-ishness. Read full review
60
Screen DailyTim GriersonOct 11, 2021
Neither the milieu nor the insights are especially fresh, despite the tender tone. Read full review
55
The AtlanticDavid SimsJan 10, 2022
The acting is good, while the story fails to really hang together. The same is true for a lot of Clooney projects—perhaps unsurprisingly, he’s attentive to the subtleties of an actor’s performance, but the scripts he’s chosen of late have been short on narrative propulsion. Read full review
50
ABC NewsPeter TraversJan 7, 2022
There’s nothing fresh or surprising about a boy coming of age with the help of his bartender uncle (Ben Affleck reminding us what a terrific actor he can be), but director George Clooney’s affection for the characters serves up a winning blend of laughs and tears. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)Jen ChaneyDec 22, 2021
Too much is skimmed over rather than dug into deeply. Read full review
50
Original-CinKim HughesDec 17, 2021
It’s not clear what Clooney’s hope for his film was, but presumably it was grander than what lands on the screen. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleDec 16, 2021
Tender Bar is a lovely movie — so long as it stays within a half mile radius of the bar. When it drifts from the bar, it collapses. When it goes back to the bar, it lifts a little. But it stays away too often to be called a success. Read full review
50
ObserverOliver JonesDec 16, 2021
It’s diluted, a little flat, but sweet and familiar enough to evoke long ago memories, if not quite strong enough to give you a reason to bother to remember. Read full review
50
The Associated PressMark KennedyDec 15, 2021
The Tender Bar is a gentle, oddly crafted but loving look at men, fueled by a soundtrack of classics like Paul Simon’s “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” and Steely Dan’s “Do It Again.” It’s a valentine to guys who step up. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreDec 14, 2021
As undemanding and shambolic as it is, The Tender Bar takes you in with warm afterglow and some winning, “I’d like to have a drink with that guy” moments. Read full review
50
The Film StageAlistair RyderOct 15, 2021
In Clooney’s hands there is very little about this coming-of-age tale that proves particularly gripping. Read full review
45
TheWrapRobert AbeleDec 16, 2021
It’s surprising that this effort from Clooney is as flavorless and unrooted as it is, because his better directorial turns are the ones grounded in character more than style. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerDec 16, 2021
The one performer in the ensemble capable of making this stuff sound like the good kind of bullshitting is Affleck Read full review
42
The PlaylistRafaela Sales RossOct 24, 2021
It is a shame that The Tender Bar never truly capitalizes on the quality of its few moments of comedic inspiration, leaning instead towards a melodrama doomed to be forever trapped in afternoon reruns. Read full review
40
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Sarah HagiJan 10, 2022
At this point in his career, Clooney is more than a seasoned director, yet The Tender Bar lacks any artistic vision. We’re left with the type of movie that you snooze through on a Sunday afternoon – or in a high-school English class. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalJohn AndersonJan 6, 2022
Generic booze is, in its way, a shortcut, something pretending to be something else—something achieved through time, effort and expense. As such, it’s not a bad analogy for this movie. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleTrace SauveurDec 30, 2021
The occasional sudden zoom or quick comedic cutaway make for brief moments of respite, and it’s hard to truly hate a film aiming for such kindly emotional resonance. But whatever slight wisdoms or truths are to be found here are squandered in a big nothing of a story trying to render them meaningful. Read full review
40
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeDec 22, 2021
It’s fair to say that this amiable but almost farcically uneventful adaptation of the 2005 memoir by JR Moehringer is also postcard-thin in its plotting and insight. Read full review
40
SlashfilmChris EvangelistaDec 18, 2021
In the end, Affleck is the film's only real draw. His funny, uncouth, working-class schlub performance breathes much-needed oxygen into the film's lungs, but at the end of the day, this isn't his story, and it really should've been. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawDec 16, 2021
George Clooney has long been a force for good in movies and public life – but what a bafflingly bland, indulgent, gritless oyster of a film he’s directed here. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comOdie HendersonDec 17, 2021
This is the same "young man's coming-of-age story" you’ve seen over and over. Nothing new has been added. The poster calls this “a feel good movie,” but who is supposed to feel good here? Certainly not the average viewer, who has seen this tired material so many times they can practically recite the dialogue. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineJake ColeDec 13, 2021
The film insists so forcefully that J.R. has lived a topsy-turvy, singular life that it abandons a potentially more rewarding approach of foregrounding how relatable many of his moments of self-discovery really are. Read full review
37
Paste MagazineAndrew CrumpJan 7, 2022
As mired as it is in identity confusion, cheeseball sentimentality and jaundiced camera filters, The Tender Bar could’ve been something if it had a purpose. Read full review
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