Based on the best-selling memoir by J.R. Moehringer, J.R., a Long Island native, spends his childhood living alongside his loving grandmother, his grandfather who communicates largely through farting, and his uncle Charlie. Charlie owns a bar where the shelves are bursting with dusty, ragged books.
We follow J.R.’s struggles in life and love as he struggles to become a writer. Affleck is the film’s great revelation. He wears the part like an old, beaten-up jacket, utterly believable as a man who’s accepted his destiny with noble resignation.