The Tender Bar | 2021 | R | – 6.3.10

Why is “The Tender Bar” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “language throughout and some sexual content.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a sex scene with partial nudity, a couple of implied sex scenes with partial nudity, a man is beaten up and a woman is struck by a man with no wounds evident, discussions of a potentially fatal illness, discussions of abandonment, several arguments, and over 70 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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A young boy (Daniel Ranieri and Tye Sheridan, at different ages) grows up in his grandfather’s (Christopher Lloyd) house with his mother (Lily Rabe), after several of her attempts to be independent go awry. The boy learns about life from his uncle (Ben Affleck), who runs a neighborhood bar and teaches the boy the value of reading so he can achieve his goal of attending college and becoming a writer. Also with Max Martini, Rhenzy Feliz, Briana Middleton, Max Casella and Sondra James. Directed by George Clooney. [Running Time: 1:44]

The Tender Bar SEX/NUDITY 6

 – A young man and a young woman have sex in a bed and the young woman thrusts on top of the young man as they both moan; we see her father in the room below them, hearing the sounds (we see the young woman’s bare back to the waist and the young man’s bare chest and abdomen). A young man is shown shirtless in a bed while smoking and it is implied that he and a young woman have had sex, before she tells him that she is seeing someone else. A young woman asks a young man if he has ever had sex in a Volvo when she picks him up from a train station in a Volvo (sex is implied).
► A young man and a young woman flirt at a party and he walks her home; she holds his arm as they walk and they arrange to study together the next day.
► A man tells his adult son that they are going to a woman’s house and makes a disparaging sexual remark about who she is. A young woman tells a young man, “We can be friends. Not romantic or sexual.” A young woman tells a young man that she lives with another young man. A young woman tells a young man that she is having a relationship with, that she thinks she is seeing someone else, and then breaks up with him. A song’s lyrics include, “50 ways to leave your lover.” A man accuses a school psychologist of making advances toward a young boy’s mother. A woman asks her son if he thinks he is in love.
► Men wear swim trunks in a beach scene that show bare chests, abdomens and legs to the mid-thighs.

The Tender Bar VIOLENCE/GORE 3

 – A man yells at a woman off-screen and we hear a commotion and then see the woman lying on the floor with food spilled around her (the man struck her); we see the man being arrested and taken away in handcuffs later. A man punches another man in the face, he falls behind a car and the man kicks and punches him several more times (we do not see the result).
► A young boy waits all day for his father to pick him up for an outing and he never comes; we hear that the man was arrested for non-payment of child support. A man is shown in a hospital bed recovering from an unnamed illness and he tells a young man, “They say it was minor.” We hear that a man put out a contract on a woman’s life and threatened to kidnap his son. We hear that a boy is having tantrums in school. A man tells a young boy that his mother has a tumor on her thyroid; we hear that she had surgery, the tumor was malignant, her thyroid was removed and she recovered. A man and a woman argue. A man and a woman quiz a young man across a breakfast table about his plans and they belittle him. A reference is made to someone having a nervous breakdown. A boy talks about his father leaving him and his mother. A woman changes the station on a radio when a man’s voice comes on; later a woman knocks a radio off a shelf and we hear it shatter when the man’s voice comes on. A man tells a young boy not to look for his father to save him. A young man has a bottle of liquor in his backpack and a priest sitting across from him on a train looks at him disapprovingly. A man tells a boy about the important things for a man to do in life and one of them is to never hit a woman, “Even if she stabbed you with a pair of scissors.” A young boy says that someone told him that he has no identity. A teacher instructs children to prepare invitations for a father-son breakfast and one young boy tells her that he doesn’t have a father. A man reprimands a woman when she asks a young boy about his mother’s cancer. Three young men discuss being lucky and how they each managed to get into an Ivy League college. A man talks about having served in the Vietnam War. A man makes a comment about threatening to “rip his lungs out.” A woman asks a young man, “Are you in psychotherapy?” A song’s lyrics include, “50 ways to leave your lover.” A man says that a cesspool can’t take the volume and that those that have to urinate should do it outside.
► A man moans and lies on a bed with a washcloth covering his eyes and tells a young boy that this is what a weekend morning looks like in the life of men (presumably after a long night of drinking the night before). A man flatulates repeatedly in a couple of scenes.

The Tender Bar LANGUAGE 10

 – About 74 F-words, 8 sexual references, 20 scatological terms, 17 anatomical terms, 6 mild obscenities, name-calling (selfish old [anatomical term deleted], honey, stingy, crazy old bastard, old dogs, lucky bastard, optimistic, pathological, emotional mess, illogical, inert, rejects, stinky, bums, punk, unbelievable, bad guy, prodigy, copy boy, chick, crazy, stupid, weird, old [scatological term deleted]), exclamations (shut-up, calm down, whoa, uh-oh), 2 religious profanities (GD), 21 religious exclamations (e.g. Jesus Christ, mother of God, Jesus, I swear to God, oh God, oh my God, as God is my witness, see the face of God). | profanity glossary |

The Tender Bar SUBSTANCE USE

 – A man sits at a table with a beer bottle in front of him, a man moans and lies on a bed with a washcloth covering his eyes and tells a young boy that this is what a weekend morning looks like in the life of men (presumably after a long night of drinking the night before), a young man has a bottle of liquor in his backpack and a priest sitting across from him on a train looks at him disapprovingly, a young man remarks about drinking heavily with his new college roommates, a man tells a young boy that there are a number of things he must do as a man including to control your drinking and “get your butts” (cigarettes), people are shown drinking (sometimes heavily) in many bar scenes throughout the movie, a young man drinks a martini and then whiskey until he is drunk and passes out, two young men drink glasses of whiskey in a restaurant, a man orders two whiskeys and tells a young man that he allows himself to have an occasional cocktail after telling him earlier that he stopped drinking, men drink and smoke on a beach, and a man tells a young man to lighten up on his drinking. People are shown smoking cigarettes in many scenes throughout the movie in many locations inside and outside.

The Tender Bar DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Home, family, Ivy League colleges, disappointment, opportunity, estranged fathers, alcoholism, tyranny, ruling classes, journalism, philosophy, failure, abuse, careers in writing, resentment, honesty, responsibility, broken hearts, failed relationships, gender roles, uncertainty, identity crises, luck.

The Tender Bar MESSAGE

 – Home is anywhere there are people you care about.