What’s It About
Follows a trio of best friends known as “The Supremes” who, for decades, has weathered life’s storms together through marriage and children, happiness and blues.
MOVIESinMO REVIEW
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 exists for its characters, their relationships, their ups and downs, and how they have changed and haven’t as the years progress. Fried Green Tomatoes and Steel Magnolias were decent films for their time. Still, for people of color, it was a test of our imagination if we wanted to put ourselves in those people’s shoes. The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat feels more realistic and associative, not just because I have southern relatives. It’s three Black women in Indiana going through some things. This is a simple story despite the expansive timeline and the narrative’s back-and-forth nature. It’s funny at times, as the women banter with each other about their eccentricity and gossip about the quirkier folks around them and aching at others as old pains persist. New ones arise with the inevitability of age and time. Still, it is consistently as warm and thoughtful and to the point as the characters at its center. Odette (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Kyanna Simone), Clarice (Uzo Aduba, Abigail Achiri), and Barbara Jean (Sanaa Lathan, Tati Gabrielle) are transformed into a sisterhood by shared grief, mutual support, and witty although occasional cold-blooded honesty. Their interwoven stories take us back and forth from the late 60s to now. Layer by layer, unveiling various hardships, fears, and secrets that come to a boil in the present. When The Supremes work, there are tears and giggles, frequently both, blended into the 3×3 plotlines of who these three women were, who they are, and who they are becoming. But that feeling comes from a movie that is as warm and comforting as a deep-sighing group hug with your lifelong sisters—whether they are born of blood or from bonding. The giggles are real, and the tears mirror your own, or you’ve cried for someone close to you. Those factors alone make it work streaming, but Ellis-Taylor, Aduba, and Lathan make it a movie I recommend for a night cuddled up on the couch, ideally with friends who have become family. The narrative moves backward 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 define 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 tragic, given the era and Ray’s family, and brings more unthinkable grief than either one could anticipate. Mabry’s tone balance here is incredibly 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 feels 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 will continue to be.
OUR RATING – A SISTERHOOD 7