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THE SUPREMES AT EARL'S ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT
Director: Tina Mabry Cast: Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Sanaa Lathan, Uzo Aduba, Abigail Achiri, Kyanna "KeeKee" Simone, Tati Gabrielle, Mekhi Phifer, Russell Hornsby, Ryan Paynter, Julian McMahon, Vondie Curtis Hall, Tony Winters, Xavier Mills, Dijon Means, Cleveland Berto MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 2:04 Release Date: 8/23/24 (Hulu) |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | August 22, 2024 Covering about five decades in the lives of a trio of friends, The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat feels like a film from another era, when medium-sized movies revolving around little stories about ordinary people mattered. It's one that exists for its characters, their relationships, their ups and downs, and how they have changed and haven't as the years progress. That's the full extent of the aim of co-writer/director Tina Mabry's film. We get to know these women, as well as the girls and young women they once were, and genuinely care about each of them, observing as their lives keep presenting challenges and their friendship makes it all worthwhile. Despite the expansive timeline and the narrative's back-and-forth nature, this is a simple story at its core. It's funny at times, as the women banter with each other about their own eccentricity and gossip about the quirkier folks around them, and aching at others, as old pains persist and new ones arise with the inevitability of age and time, but it is consistently as warm and thoughtful and to-the-point as the characters at its center. In the present-day of 1999, the three friends find themselves on the verge of a series of crises. De facto group leader Odette (Aujanue Ellis-Taylor) has been experiencing hot flashes, which everyone simply amounts to an imminent change of life for her. Clarice (Uzo Aduba) receives a phone call from someone who won't respond, and the silence on the other end of the line puts her suspicions on her husband Richmond (Russell Hornsby), who maybe seemed a bit too eager to get in the shower after returning home late from work. The biggest adjust, though, comes when Barbara Jean (Sanaa Lathan) learns that Big Earl (Tony Winters), the man who ran the local diner where everyone gathered to eat and talk and dance, has died. It's a sad change for the town and the three friends, whom Earl dubbed "the Supremes" and seemed to favor over just about every other customer he had throughout his life, but the circumstances of his death point toward how oddball the humor of Mabry and Cee Marcellus' adaptation of Edward Kelsey Moore's novel can be. He died in the middle of praying at his bedside before going to sleep, and it took until the next day for superstitious second wife (played by Sherry Richards) to call anyone. She needed her sleep after the shock, after all, and that's when everyone realizes where the new widow slept the night before. The couch wouldn't have been comfortable enough for her, she argues. There's no reason for these details, except that they give the film a flavor of the personalities and attitudes of these characters. Much of the later conflict, for example, emerges from just how different the three protagonists are and have been for the entirety of their friendship. Odette recalls each one's origins circa 1950: her born late and in a tree when her mother finally decided a bit of folklore might help more than medicine, Clarice's mother being the first Black woman to give birth in a segregated hospital and—as she did throughout her life—politely smiling her way through it, and Barbara Jean born in a gentleman's club amidst a group of men who each have reason to believe he could be the father. Odette assumes the circumstances of her birth made her fearless, which she is—arguably to a fault, given that she really only does have two good friends and her husband James (Mekhi Phifer) who put up with her stubborn and opinionated ways. Meanwhile, Clarice gave up a potential career as a concert pianist to marry Richmond, which Odette believes make her just like her mother, and Barbara Jean wants to be nothing like her mom, although Earl's death and another one make her start drinking again. These characters aren't broadly defined types caught up in a lot of a melodrama, in other words. We understand them on a deeper level, because the film takes its time to ensure that we do. Indeed, it uses time to aid in doing so. The narrative moves backwards to the 1960s and '70s, when the women's younger selves met, connected almost instantly, and started on the path of the lives they now have—watching each other facing challenges and making, perhaps, a mistake or two but supporting each other regardless. Much of those flashbacks defines how we see the current-day relationships, such as a young Clarice (Abigail Achiri) trying to fit the model of a "perfect" life with young football star Richmond (Xavier Mills), as well as a sweet and shy young James (Dijon Means) admiring a young Odette (Kyanna "KeeKee" Simone) for how she stands up for herself and others. The most substantial subplot in the flashbacks, though, belongs to a young Barbara Jean (Tati Gabrielle), who bonds with a white busboy at Earl's named Ray (Ryan Paynter), because they both have suffered abuse. The course of their star-crossed romance is a tragic one, given the era and Ray's family, and brings more unthinkable grief than either one could anticipate. Mabry's balance of tone here is especially confident, considering how effortlessly she navigates the downhome humor of some of the personalities on display and the severity of certain revelations. It's a lot, but none of it feels like too much or manipulative in The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat. That's because the focus is always on these characters as they figure out who they are, what really matters, and just how vital this friendship has been, is, and will continue to be. Copyright © 2024 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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