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“Tender Bar” is a new movie, which recently began streaming on Amazon Prime.
Directed by George Clooney, starring Ben Affleck, and based on the best-selling memoir by J.R. Moehringer, it includes a Westport scene. The Hollywood Reporter says:
“During a visit to Sydney’s home in the la-di-da suburbia of Westport, Connecticut, J.R.’s tense breakfast with her parents (Mark Boyett and Quincy Tyler Bernstine) tips into the absurd, recalling the memorably uncomfortable meet-the-parents meal in Goodbye, Columbus, and giving Clooney a chance to express his taste for edgier, satiric terrain.”
Fred Cantor — who sent along that tidbit — adds: “Even though the author’s sometime girlfriend at Yale was from Westport, the scenes at the train station and her home were filmed in a Boston suburb.”
One more local connection: The cast includes Christopher Lloyd. As a Staples High School student in 1958, he helped found what is now the nationally known Players drama troupe.
Click here for the full Hollywood Reporter review.
“The Tender Bar” (Photo courtesy of Amazon)
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Omicron may be rampant, but Stop & Shop has eliminated its special 6 a.m. opening time — instituted early in the pandemic, to give older shoppers special access to a supposedly emptier store. The new opening hour for everyone is 7 a.m. (Hat tip: John Karrel)
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Friday’s snowstorm has moved on. But scenes like these remain. This one was captured for “Westport … Naturally” by June Rose Whittaker.
(Photo/June Rose Whittaker)
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And finally … Happy 109th birthday, Mr. President!
Thanks for bringing back Phil Ochs to my breakfast.
It’s odd that S&S is cancelling the special access as Covid is ramping up again. But we know they have terrible timing. They proved that by screwing up the store with a “makeover” as their busiest season began. Does anybody know the story behind that dumb move?
Probably gussied it up in advance of the new Amazon store opening down the street.
i don’t know the back story. But I still have to ask for help every time I’m there.
Yeah; and when the ill-managed purveyor DID open at 6a.m. for us old folks, the friggen PHARMACY, at which many of us dottering customers had prescriptions, still opened at 9….not 8:59;30, but NINE.
Saturday NYT yesterday had interesting article re “The Tender Bar”. Article was on Page 2, Arts section. Chris Vognar was the reporter. I read J.R. Moehringer’s 2005 excellent memoir, but I have not seen the movie.
Brooklyn resident, Daniel Ranieri (10) plays boy in the movie. Interesting story how George Clooney found him through watching him on YouTube
on Jimmy Kimmel’s show.
Coincidentally, I watched some of “The Tender Bar,” just the other night and switched it off just after the faux-Westport scene. Not that there was too much disparaging about Westport, just that it’s a dumb and boring movie. The only good performance was by the ’68 Cadillac convertible. My mom had a ’69 of the same color she bought used just in time for the ’73 gas crisis. At 10 MPG she didn’t hold onto it for long.
STOP AND SHOP GIVE US A MAP TO NAVIGATE NEW SETUP!!!
We watched The Tender Bar last night. I really enjoyed it and laughed when the line about being in Westport came up. It didn’t seem too far off the mark to me. I grew up in Westport in the 1960-1980s and remember families like that.
It was well done and had great characters.I even watched it twice!
The movie was okay. The boy was good and believable, but the Manhasset on Long Island is a pretty upscale community of million dollar + homes. The thing that ruined the movie for me was the actor used to play the boy grown up – if you’re shooting a movie shouldn’t you make sure that the boy will grow into a man WITH THE SAME EYE COLOR??? Suspending belief for something based on a real story is one thing but, come on! My husband also noticed a lot of other little things that they should have picked up as well.
How sharp of you to have noticed. I will look for that when I watch the movie.