The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat Movie Review

Love was their glue… they were a hot mess apart.

“The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat” is based on the 2013 New York Times best-selling novel of the same name by Edward Kelsey Moore. The script is written by director of “The Woman King,” Gina Prince-Bythewood (as Cee Marcellus here) and Tina Mabry, though the film itself is being directed by Mabry, who’s most known for her work directing in television.

Its plot starts fairly interestingly in 1967, telling us that Odette (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor from “Ray” and “King Richard”) was born up in a Sycamore tree, half into her tenth month. It’s said that this type of birth is supposed to make the child fearless. You’d think it would make the mother the fearless one!

With notable writing that immediately grabs your attention, you’ll like what you’re hearing and seeing. Character development is smoothly done, and it’s all going well until you notice it’s puttering out, going nowhere fast, and not able to keep you as involved as you’d like to be throughout. The ensemble cast is splendid, and you’ll appreciate the stories centered around the three female leads, “The Supremes,” as they’re called. Earl called them that because he was a fan and there were three of them as there were three in the R&B group… not an excellent reason for this to be the title, possibly a drag, as there is no point to call it that. It isn’t off-putting unless you want a movie about the group. For this reason, the title doesn’t make sense since you may be doing just that.

In their teens, Odette (Kyanna Simone) and Clarice (Abigail Achiri), pick up a friend along the way named Barbara Jean (Tati Gabrielle). She’s someone Odette ends up saving from her stepfather, Curtis (Craig Tate), who’s physically abusive when her mother dies. Odette makes protecting this girl her pet project, even willing to try and fight him, fists and all. Clarice is played by Uzo Aduba, who was in ninety episodes of “Orange is the New Black,” and Barbara Jean is played by “Succession’s” Sanaa Lathan. When it happens, there’s a decent transition from their younger selves to the older, except that Tati Gabrielle and Sanaa Lathan, the Barbara Jean actresses, look so little alike that they could not possibly be the same person, which may be a bit distracting. That bit of casting was a miss.

Anyway, the girls are as close as sisters and spend little time apart. When boys come into the mix, it happens at Earl’s, the “Finer Diner.” This will be the place they’ll reminisce about and still patronize for the rest of their lives. Most of the movie takes place in 1999, but it does wander to the past to introduce us to characters still in our leading ladies’ lives. Big Earl himself (Tony Winters) is a big part of the story, primarily for his kindness and generosity. He initially gave young Barbara Jean a place to live once the word was out about her quality of life.

Odette meets James (Mekhi Phifer from Eminem’s song “Lose Yourself”… can you hear the song?), and Clarice gets to know and falls for Richmond, Russell Hornsby of “Grimm” fame. The young women, seated at ‘their booth,’ got to know them almost as if fate was involved… also because they had a bird’s eye view of Earl’s clientele’s comings and goings.

They end up married to James and Richmond a few years later, while Barbara Jean gets to know a “pretty white boy” named Ray, played by Ryan Paynter from the TV Series “Me.” Earl has taken him in so he can escape his vicious, racist brother, who uses Ray as a punching bag. Both have similar lives and are saved by the same man. Shortly after their meeting, she gets pregnant and isn’t exactly prepared for what happens next. Life doesn’t go as easily as any of them would have liked. Just because you think you’re tough and have a handle on things doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll work out for you and you’ll get what you always wanted.

Challenging issues in relationships and deaths encircle the three of them, but they still manage to stay close. Odette never holds anything back, a controlling person, but unable to regulate what she needs to most. She’s always in everyone’s business, now getting her nose in Barbara Jean’s business about her alcohol addiction. Odette gossips and snoops to keep everyone from learning what’s going on with her. She ends up with a cancer diagnosis. She’s so far along that she notes that she wants her eternal resting place to be at her sycamore.

Overall, the movie lacked what it took to get us attached to anyone. Everyone was likable, but at times they were downright noxious. That said, the actors were sound in their roles and could keep bad relationships out, which they did as easily as those they loved most. Sadly, I think they managed to keep the audience out, too. It wasn’t written well enough to do both. I say this because it was trying to be two things at once, struggling with value over volume and trying to be a drama while allowing too many comedic elements in. Pick a lane.

This film will be streaming on Hulu in the U.S. August 23, 2024.