The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat is as convoluted and flustered as its title, but it’s also a gleefully solaced demonstration of stone-solid friendship over decades. The film follows a group of women—Odette (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor), Clarice (Uzo Aduba), and Barbara Jean (Sanaa Lathan)—as they experience life together. Starting from Odette’s bewitched birth in a sycamore tree, the three embark on a multitude of challenges and milestones, from abortion and racism to childbirth and identity development. They help, hurt, love, and lose, but no matter what, they stick together. The Supremes delves into the complexities of three interconnected lives in racist rural and metropolitan America. Still, a lack of structure and writing integrity deflates this into a silly, cluttered, melodramatic subordinate.

This film should’ve worked much better than it does (and by all means, it has its Supreme moments). The three main stars and their younger counterparts—particularly young Barbara Jean (Tati Gabrielle)—anchor the film with joyous heft. No matter the circumstances, Odette remains the rugged protector, Barbara Jean remains the relatively lost soul, and Clarice is the source of empowerment for others. Their personalities click and clash like those of old friends would, inspiring somber reflection and occasional laughs even in dire circumstances. Their respective performers distinguish them from each other eloquently, both in interaction and reaction to their continuously ensuing crises. The duo of trios elevates the film’s blockish plotting and thinner scripting with enough stubbornness to feel charming throughout.

Unfortunately, the writing doesn’t hold. Supremes’ writer-director Tina Mabry certainly has a knack for a tonally universalizable kinetic direction and polished on-screen contours, which make this feel both visually stunning and like it should be a classic. There’s too much going on and not enough realistic emotional brevity. From the get-go, a two-dimensional narration from Odette announcing: “I was born in a Sycamore tree…. So [my mama] wound up seeing a witch my granny knew for help. The witch asked my mama if she wanted her child to be guided by destiny or by fate.” In the first line, a dying Odette appears under a dying Sycamore tree; 15 seconds and 5 or 6 cuts later, viewers see Odette’s mama on top of another living one. Supremes plays throughout at this choppily-paced, on-the-nose tone with virtually no slow down or unspoken substance. It’s one bad (narratively and technically) scene after the next. While that may partially be intentional—representing how constantly terrorizing and terrifying life is for three black women living in the U.S.—the characters come off as hollow, and circumstances occasionally silly. Melodrama has its pluses, but in Supremes, it devalues the film’s stellar ensemble and legitimate trauma explored in topics like abortion, racialized murder, cheating, love, and death.

Overall, The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat is a buffet of mixed goods. Charming performances and vaguely periodic visual flare help disguise the film’s mediocre dialogue, but unless melodrama is entertaining, Supremes is as subpar as it is sullen.

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