It’s hard to spoil one of the most exciting scenes in “The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat,” if only because it features heavily in the trailer. And one gets the sense that director Tina Mabry doesn’t intend to spoil the fun either, as much as she’s emphasizing the fierce loyalty she showed in adapting Edward Kelsey Moore’s 2013 novel, which centers on lifelong friends Odette, Clarice, and Barbara Jean, who dubbed themselves the infamous Motown trio. Mabry’s delightful film version is set to release on Hulu on August 23.
In “Born Without Fear,” Odette (Kiana Simone) prepares to beat up Barbara Jean’s (Tati Gabrielle) stepfather, who is both fearless and beautiful. She has just buried her mother, and Odette and her best friend Clarice (Abigail Ashery) arrive bearing a box of fried chicken smeared with grease. When the overweight teen strips down to her bra and undershirt because, as she tells Clarice, “I don’t want to get blood on my dress,” it becomes a moment of comedy and encouragement. The scene is soon followed by another intervention that changes Barbara Jean’s life and cements their enduring friendship: Earl (Tony Winters), the restaurant owner who is the center of the small town’s community, and his wife Thelma insist that Barbara Jean move into their house.
While the actors cast as the young trio are compelling, those playing the adult friends offer something of a talent for Lembri, who is only making her second feature film. (After her strong, personal debut, 2009’s “Mississippi Damned,” she has worked in television and streaming.)
Aunganui Ellis Taylor plays Odette, the film’s centrifugal force. Odette begins the story contemplating fate and destiny under a tree and not looking very well. But she’s not. Sanaa Lathan captures the ways in which beauty was both a strength and a weakness for Barbara Jean. As the gifted pianist (now studying piano in the city) Clarice, Uzo Aduba makes it clear that her character has seen it all when it comes to her cheating husband Richmond, and regretfully realizes that she’s lived a life of compromise. Needless to say, the three have supported each other through the years’ joys (not many) and sorrows (many).
The actors who play their husbands do a fine job, too. Vonnie Curtis Hall is particularly adept at conveying the love, courage, and compassion Lester feels for his younger wife, Barbara Jean. He has to be; his screen time is short. Lester knows he wasn’t Barbara Jean’s first choice, but he rises to the occasion. As Richmond, Russell Hornsby brings to the former football star the kind of charisma that invites judgment but also leaves room for hope. In other words, it’s a performance that puts us in Clarice’s uncomfortable shoes. He’s a villain, sure, but Hornsby shakes some space for him. Mekhi Phifer proves both strong and comforting as James, Odette’s loyal, deeply rooted companion. When Odette learns she’s ill, his response speaks volumes with its quiet firmness.
Yes, there will be betrayals and fidelities, births and deaths. To lighten the comedy, the Earl's second and younger wife, Minnie (Sherry Richards), screams her false spiritual expectations. And we credit Winters as the Earl and Curtis Hall for making such warm impressions that when they are gone, each is deeply missed.
Watching the trilogy of Odette, Clarice and Barbara Jean—with all its complexities and challenges—there’s a lot to enjoy in this adaptation, co-written by Mabry and Sy Marcellus (the pseudonym of “The Queen Woman” director Gina Prince-Bythewood). That doesn’t mean fans of the book won’t be disappointed by some of the film’s choices, though.
Readers are certainly always disturbed by the changes and omissions. But if one were not familiar with the novel’s strong and playful allusions to ghostly visitations and weekly church attendance, one might imagine the book to be more like a Nicholas Sparks romance novel. The film’s visual style, which leans toward drama and historical accounts, adds to this feeling.
The love affair between the wounded Barbara Jean and Ray “Chick” Carlson—”the king of the pretty white boys,” as Clarice calls him—whom Earl hires as a waiter, may only strengthen those feelings. Yet Ryan Painter finds in the wounded Chick a sweetness that still lingers in his adult counterpart. Julian McMahon continues to be kind once he returns to town after thirty years as a college professor.
A film that invites us to admire and even root for all sides of a love triangle is commendable, but does making room for an interracial love story mean sacrificing something more fundamental to the Supremes? By mocking Minnie’s esoteric tendencies while abandoning the ghosts of the novel—and to a lesser extent the women’s churchgoing—it has obliterated something spiritual and perhaps integral to these friends and their community.
Yet there are simple moments of magic here. Deep friendship is among the most magical inventions ever created, and Odette, Clarice, and Barbara Jean show how to honor it.
