Movie Review The Tender Bar

The Tender Bar 

Directed by George Clooney 

Written by William Monahan, J.R Moehringer

Starring Ben Affleck, Tye Sheridan

Release Date January 7th, 2022 

George Clooney is the kind of director that actors love. As an actor himself he understands the way actors think and what actors enjoy doing. It’s easy to imagine Clooney encouraging his actors to follow their muse no matter where it takes them. That has unfortunately led to some deeply indulgent performances in Clooney directed movies. From Sam Rockwell’s entertaining but kitsch heavy performance in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind to Matt Damon’s downright weird performance in Suburbicon, Clooney shows himself to be a director willing to indulge his actors to good and not so good extremes. 

The latest actor allowed to indulge in extremes under the direction of George Clooney is Ben Affleck in the new Amazon Prime feature The Tender Bar. In this adaptation of JR Moehringer’s best selling memoir, Affleck plays Uncle Charlie to Tye Sheridan’s fictionalized version of the famed journalist and author. And boy can you tell this is directed by George Clooney. Affleck’s Charlie is a walking cliche of a New Yawk, Lawn Guy-land accent, all broad machismo and brainy posturing. As a fan of Affleck I can’t completely hate it, but even I have to recognize how a different director might have tried to reign in some of the broad aspects of Affleck’s otherwise scene stealing performance.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Movie Review Asphalt City

Asphalt City (2024) 

Directed by Jean Stephane Sauvaire 

Written by Ryan King, Ben Mac Brown

Starring Tye Sheridan, Sean Penn, Mike Tyson, Kali Reis, Michael Pitt 

Release Date March 29th, 2024 

Published March 28th, 2024 

Asphalt City is the kind movie that mistakes wallowing in misery for drama. The film about a rookie EMT in New York City wallows in the bleak misery of suffering that, I am sure, will feel like gritty drama to some but felt punishing for this critic. I don't mind a good wallow, I was a big fan of Scorsese's similarly themed Bringing Out the Dead years ago, but I have my limits and Asphalt City pushed well past my limit for desolation that borders on post-apocalyptic. I realize New York City can be an angry and dark place but this borders on pornographic in terms of misery. 

Asphalt City stars Tye Sheridan as Ollie Cross a wide-eyed medical student whose paying his way through med-school by working as an EMT in New York City. Struggling with a terrible partner who hates rookies, Cross's spirits are buoyed when he's reassigned to work with an aging veteran, Gene 'Rut' Rutkovsky. Rut takes pity on the kid and sets about teaching him the job instead of just screaming orders at him. Where his previous partner, played by Michael Pitt, appeared intent on running Cross out of the job, Rut seems to take to being a mentor. 

This doesn't however, give the movie a boost in terms of the pitch black ugliness at play. Even as Rut proves to be kind, the runs they make in their ambulance are unendingly grim. EMT's deal with a lot of horrors but Asphalt City makes the job appear like the seventh circle of hell at all times. It's to the point that I just can't believe anyone would be able to do this job and since we have EMT's currently working in New York City, I can only imagine that they have found some way to preserve their mental health. This movie makes being an EMT akin to trying to survive Cormac McCarthy's The Road. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media