Getting introduced to The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat felt like meeting someone for the first time, but recognizing them immediately as a friend. The story, adapted from Edward Kelsey Moore’s novel by director Tina Maybry and co-writer Cee Marcellus (aka Gina Prince-Bythewood), lands in a similar place as Steel Magnolias and Fried Green Tomatoes. It’s about lifelong friendships between women and, although The Supremes is set in Indiana, it’s distinctly southern.
I know a lot about both those things. I’m from North Carolina and I could hear my cousins, my aunties, and my grandmother’s sisterhood in The Supremes. More intimately, I know the relationships between Black-women that feed our souls through a lifetime. That’s the true-to-life reflection found in this movie.
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 works, 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.
The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat frequently works, but there are times when the storytelling isn’t given enough time to breathe. A vividly realized Act One leads into a rushed Act Two, making you want to slow it down, so you can savor more. 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 either mirror your own or the ones 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.
Note: The onscreen men here are definitely a bonus when watching–they’re well seasoned zaddies. (if that’s your kind of meal)
