The Tender Bar
“Between the ones who love you and the ones who leave you is the journey of a lifetime.”
JR is a fatherless boy growing up in the glow of a bar where the bartender, his Uncle Charlie, is the sharpest and most colorful of an assortment of quirky and demonstrative father figures. As the boy’s determined mother struggles to provide her son with opportunities denied to her — and leave the dilapidated home of her outrageous if begrudgingly supportive father — JR begins to gamely, if not always gracefully, pursue his romantic and professional dreams, with one foot persistently placed in Uncle Charlie’s bar.
A warm, lived-in feeling permeates this story of a young man finding his way. It’s a nostalgic look at unconventional family ties, the comfort of a familiar bar, and the bittersweet journey of growing up in 1970s Long Island.
