Ben Affleck’s TENDER BAR premiere snap take & set-styled Hollywood afterparty

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent

Even though this joke – “A termite walks into a bar, and asks ‘where is the bar tender?’” – wasn’t in the movie, on Sunday, Dec. 12 at the TCL Chinese Theatre, J.R. Moehringer’s film-memoir THE TENDER BAR had a showing for an enthusiastic packed audience. It even had a star-studded Q&A moderated by WTF Podcaster Marc Maron after the screening. No Director George Clooney wasn’t there, (because he is shooting in Australia, they said) but Ben Affleck held the floor with Tye Sheridan, Christopher Lloyd, Lily Rabe, Daniel Ranieri, Grant Heslov, and screenwriter William Monahan, on deck chairs on the stage under the gorgeous decor of this redone theater. 

Directed by George Clooney, and clearly a passion project from Team Amazon, THE TENDER BAR is a coming of age story for a writer who is raised in fits and starts by a single mother (Lily Rabe) who tries to get her father (Christopher Lloyd) to stand in for her son (Tye Sheridan) as he copes with the stress of having an inconsistent, but mostly absent father. That’s the one-paragraph recap, although the film itself breaks higher and lower emotional notes on the things that make us who we are as people, and adults – how family shapes our development.

Ben Affleck, who plays bar-owner Uncle Charlie role here with charm and humor, said it best about the heart of this film and its connection to family…

Watch What Ben Says About THE TENDER BAR

(Sound quality may suffer from being shot on a phone here, but the meaning should come through.)

Okay, so after the Q & A, Marc Maron in a 70’s-ish corduroy suit and same period brush mustache, made his way over to the party, followed by cast and crew from the film. The entire gang included Ben Affleck, Tye Sheridan, Christopher Lloyd, Lily Rabe, newcomer Daniel Ranieri, Max Martini, Rhenzy Feliz, Briana Middleton, Michael Braun, Matthew Delamater, Ivan Leung, author J.R. Moehringer, screenwriter William Monahan, Grant Heslov, and Ted Hope. TENDER BAR cast members took turns floating through the surreal set environment at the hotel.

Because The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, site of the very first Oscar presentation in the late 1920’s, was done up as the set from Uncle Charlie’s bar in the movie to perfection. Bar snacks and free-flowing vodka martinis, joined champagne uncorked and petite upmarket appetizers, in a swirl of conversation and Pandemic protocols for this brave new entertainment era.

Other celebrities included Jennifer Lopez, who breezed by in a Frozen gauzy light blue gown, Anne Heche in a quartz-studded off-the-should green cocktail dress, with her Better Together podcaster Heather Duffy in style, plus Abbie Cornish in a dazzling silky floral dress, production Team Amazon, as well as stars from daytime TV. 

Grant Heslov held his own wide circle of admirers, not just for championing such a substantive and endearing (dysfunctional) family film, but for his own charms. Christopher Lloyd, of the Twitter handle @DocBrownLloyd kind of stole the show, the Q & A, and even the afterparty with his quiet charm and elder statesman smiles. Lloyd plays the grandfather and father figure who holds the entire family together, shaded by his erudite literary umbra.

Here’s the official teaser for this very holiday-feeling uplifting family film

Amazon Studios will open THE TENDER BAR to select LA & NY Theaters on Dec.17th, then nationwide on Dec. 22nd, followed globally on Prime Video by Jan. 7th, 2022.

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