‘The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat’ Review: Trio Sticks Together

It would be difficult to spoil one of most rousing scenes in “The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat,” if only because it figures mightily into the movie’s trailer. One gets the sense that director Tina Mabry doesn’t intend to spoil the fun either so much as emphasize the feisty fealty she practiced in adapting Edward Kelsey Moore’s 2013 novel, which centers on lifelong friends Odette, Clarice and Barbara Jean, who’ve dubbed themselves after the famous Motown trio. Mabry’s feelgood movie version is slated for an Aug. 23 release on Hulu.

“Born fearless,” Odette (Kyanna Simone) prepares to box the handsy stepfather of acquaintance Barbara Jean (Tati Gabrielle), who is as cowed as she is pretty. Her mother has just been buried, and Odette and her best friend Clarice (Abigail Achiri) have come bearing a grease-blotted box of fried chicken. When the stout teenager strips down to her bra and slip because, as she tells Clarice, “I don’t want blood all over my dress,” it’s a stand-up-and-cheer moment. The scene is soon followed by another intervention that changes Barbara Jean’s life and cements enduring friendship: Vast-hearted Earl (Tony Winters), whose restaurant is the center of the small-town community, and wife Thelma insist Barbara Jean move into their home.

While the actors cast in the roles of the young triumvirate are compelling, the ones who play the adult friends offer something of a talent bonanza for Mabry, directing just her second film. (After a powerful and personal debut feature, 2009’s “Mississippi Damned,” she’s worked in the television and streaming space.)

Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor portrays Odette, the movie’s centrifugal force. She starts things off ruminating about fate and destiny under a tree and not looking altogether well. She isn’t. Sanaa Lathan captures the ways beauty has been both a power and a vulnerability for Barbara Jean. As the gifted pianist (who now teaches piano in…