PLOT: An getting older film star (George Clooney) struggles to reconcile the alternatives he’s made in his profession with the toll they’ve taken on his family and friends.
REVIEW: Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly is tailored for George Clooney. Of all the fashionable film stars, he’s one of many few left who’ve maintained a sure aura — a mystique. He’s old-school in the way in which somebody like Cary Grant or Paul Newman was, and his presence is what makes Jay Kelly work in addition to it does. It’s a must to imagine that Jay Kelly may very well be a film star, and Clooney is nothing if not plausible in that function.
Many can be tempted to see parallels between Kelly’s profession and Clooney’s personal, particularly as a sizzle reel of the actor’s previous motion pictures is used towards the tip when the star is given a tribute at a movie competition. But, the film examines the hollowness, at instances, of a film star’s life. Kelly, at first, isn’t in contrast to what we think about Clooney to be — affable, charming, and well liked by all as he completes his newest film (in an elaborately staged oner that introduces the complete solid). But Kelly additionally has two daughters he not often sees, a couple of ex-wives, and maybe no actual associates, surrounding himself as an alternative with a retinue of workers who act as a surrogate household.
They’re led by Adam Sandler as Ron, his long-time supervisor, who treats his shoppers like household, endearingly referring to them solely as “pet,” the identical approach he calls his personal children. To Ron, Jay is household — however is the reverse true?
Certainly, Jay initially looks as if a pleasant man, however Baumbach shortly pulls away the layers when Kelly has an opportunity encounter with an outdated colleague from whom he as soon as stole a career-making function. The pal, performed by Billy Crudup, seems in a bravura scene the place their initially pleasant encounter quickly goes disastrously awry, sending Kelly right into a midlife disaster that ends with him hopping a prepare to Paris within the hopes of reconnecting along with his youngest daughter (Grace Edwards), along with his workers in tow.
Whereas it’s Clooney’s present, Baumbach has assembled an excellent supporting solid, with Sandler at his greatest because the mensch-like Ben, who invests an excessive amount of within the friendships he believes he has with shoppers to whom he’s little greater than employed assist. Sandler excels at taking part in these nice-guy characters, however he’s additionally plausible within the moments when Ben should pivot to ruthlessness — similar to when he handles a vicious shakedown or tries to finagle a brand new half for Jay, whose profession is on the downslide as he ages. Laura Dern is very good as Jay’s publicist, who more and more begins to resent being dragged away from her circle of relatives to serve Jay’s whims, seeing by way of the nice-guy façade extra clearly than others.
By means of all of it, Clooney maintains our sympathy for Jay. For all his faults, he isn’t introduced as a nasty individual — simply hole. He’s spent no time constructing a life for himself exterior of his work, to the actual resentment of his oldest daughter (Riley Keough, in a small however sturdy half). The film grows particularly potent within the third act when Kelly reunites along with his estranged father, performed by a memorable Stacy Keach, and begins to appreciate simply how empty his life really is.
But for all of the unbelievable performances, Jay Kelly isn’t an ideal movie. It’s marred by a considerably indulgent tone, with Baumbach often lapsing into broadly comedian moments paying homage to his lighter fare like Mistress America. Baumbach did a greater job with this sort of tone in his masterful Marriage Story (though I didn’t look after his final film, White Noise). It’s jarring to have near-slapstick moments intervene with the drama, with the tone recalling late-period Blake Edwards, when he was making darker movies similar to S.O.B. There’s additionally a heavy dose of Fellini’s 8½ as Jay displays on his youth, with reenactments of earlier moments from his life portrayed by Andor’s Kyle Soller (it’s refreshing that they didn’t use AI de-aging strategies and opted to go old-school). It’s additionally a bit too lengthy at 135 minutes, however these imperfections can’t take away from what actually works within the film — specifically, the performances.
It’ll be attention-grabbing to see how Jay Kelly is acquired as soon as it opens in theaters (it goes into restricted launch on November 14) and hits Netflix (on November 5). As a celebration of Clooney and Sandler’s expertise, it completely works, and even when it’s inconsistent and oddly formed at instances, it tells a narrative that resonates past the privileged world it depicts.
