summary
- The film depicts the enduring friendship between three black women through the joys and sorrows of life.
- The strong performances by the cast add depth to the emotional narrative of friendship and support, helping us forget the film's hollow supporting characters and weak attempts at humor.
- Despite some Lifetime Movie-like moments, the film's touching portrayal of enduring friendship shines through all the drama.
The Supremes at Earl's All You Can Eat Restaurant The film chronicles decades of friendship between three very different black women. The narrative moves back and forth from their teenage years to the early 21st century, with laughter, tragedy and crisis mixed together like a malt milkshake. A tear or two may fall as the women laugh. The film pours melodrama thick. In this week's Lifetime movie, which doesn't help. Long running time, choppy pacing, and traditional supporting characters.However, both leading bands are likable and fill the screen with tangible heartFriends love and care for each other in good times and bad.
Hopeful little girls form great friendship
In 1999, in Plainview, Indiana, cancer-stricken Odette (Aunjanue Ellis Taylor) lies under an elm tree. She remembers her birth fifty years earlier. Tired of being pregnant for ten long months, her mother pays a witch to speed up the process. She is told to climb a tree to send baby Odette into the world. The film portrays Odette as a strong and capable girl from the moment she takes her first breath.
Eighteen years later, teenage Odette (Kiana Simone) is forced by her overbearing mother and Clarice (Abigail Achieri), a gifted pianist, to bring fried chicken to the funeral of her deceased neighbor. The girls are stunned to find no one there but a frightened Barbara Jean (Tati Gabrielle), who is in the grip of her evil stepfather. Odette realizes that they cannot leave the shy girl alone after her mother's death.
Odette and Clarice go with Barbara Jean to Earl's, a restaurant that offers free lunches. Barbara Jean meets Richmond, Clarice's football-playing friend, and James, his shy friend who loves Odette but is completely afraid of her. Odette tells Big Earl (Tony Winters) about Barbara Jean's terrible situation at home. Big Earl and his wife decide to take Barbara Jean in immediately. Big Earl names the trio of promising young girls “The Supremes”, after the famous Motown band fronted by Diana Ross.
The drama of this movie is as thick as molasses.
Adapted from the bestselling novel by Edward Kelsey Moore, The girls' lives intertwine as each faces a difficult path to maturity.Sanaa Lathan and Uzo Aduba co-star as adult Barbara Jean and Clarice. Their hopes and dreams are often put on hold when they make pivotal decisions that steer their futures in the wrong direction. Odette, who narrates the story, reflects on the ups and downs with equal parts humor and regret. The Supremes are unaware of her cancer diagnosis as she helps them overcome significant obstacles.
There's a lot going on here. Director Tina Mabry (Mississippi cursedOWN Series sugar queen) Explores each character and the events that shape them in great detail.For example, race becomes a factor when teenage Barbara Jean falls in love with Ray (Ryan Painter), a white delivery man who is given a job by the kindly Earl and allowed to sleep in the storage room. He is also the product of abuse and suffers at the hands of the town's racist menace. Ray's drunken brother Desmond (Jesse Gallego) takes up the hobby of chasing black people in his truck. Odette and Clarice warn Barbara about the dangers of interracial romance.
We witness the consequences of events that took place years before. Barbara Jean and Ray’s ill-fated romance is just one of many difficult situations that the friends find themselves in. This is where the film veers into gimmickry and expectation. The matches they lit in their youth explode in forest fires as time goes on. These scenes are supposed to be the most dramatic and moving, but they feel contrived.
Decades of friendship portrayed in empowering ways
Mabry, who also co-wrote the screenplay, wants to highlight dreams that go unfulfilled because of fear and complacency. The characters are haunted by regret for not pursuing what makes them happy. Naturally, they get a second chance as adults to right those wrongs. And so the Lifetime series allows for a happy reboot.
The Supremes at Earl's All You Can Eat Restaurant Uses Silly side characters to balance the drama with humor.There's a long running joke about Earl's second wife, but it's just plain ridiculous. Fortunately, the talented Hollywood actors and newbies pull off this joke with real comedic chemistry. Simone is a fun character as young Odette, with Ellis Taylor picking up the baton as an adult.Their direct, unflinching approach to delivering the harsh truth will have you laughing out loud. Mabry could have helped the slow second act by cutting back on the silly nonsense and keeping Odette's panicked projections central.
The Supremes at Earl's All You Can Eat RestaurantChecks the girl power box in an empowering and encouraging way.Odette, Clarice, and Barbara Jean have an inseparable bond. They argue and may hurt each other, but they never fail to offer support when it's needed. The value of true friendship is never underestimated, and its honest portrayal lifts the film through many of the duller parts.
The Supremes at Earl's All You Can Eat Restaurant It is a co-production between Temple Hill Entertainment and Searchlight Pictures. It is currently available to stream on Hulu. You can watch it through the link below.
Watch on Hulu
