Author/director Noah Baumbach’s “Jay Kelly” depicts a celebrated film star (George Clooney) as he tries to get his private life collectively, whereas touring to a prestigious movie pageant the place he’ll obtain a lifetime achievement award.
Clooney’s Jay Kelly has a crew of assistants contains his loyal supervisor (Adam Sandler) and an aggravated publicist (Laura Dern). Alongside the way in which, Kelly displays on his alternative to select his profession over being a father and the way he as soon as aced a script studying that gave him an enormous break however ruined his friendship with a nervous, much less ready actor and former buddy.
“Jay Kelly” is a self-congratulatory dud. The whole lot about it’s low stakes, beginning with the massive incident (a battle at a bar) that’s supposed to construct in the direction of a dramatic reconciliation however by no means does. In reality, this subplot is settled with a easy cellphone name and, like most of Kelly’s issues, simply fades away.
The identical goes for the daddy/daughter battle, as the whole lot is tidied up neatly within the all people wins conclusion.
The true concern explored right here is that Kelly’s crew realizes that there’s a distinction between being his precise buddy versus being part of the machine that creates his alternatives for achievement. Okay, however that is additionally wrapped up with hugs and a reminder that everybody seen resides a swanky existence primarily based on the profession of 1 man.
“Jay Kelly” is almost plotless and ambles from one scene to a different however with out the fast patter a farce about Hollywood wants. The whole lot about it’s too sluggish, too chill and too low stakes, which is an issue when your movie has no actual pressure however nonetheless manages to clock in at two and a half hours lengthy.
It might shock readers to know that I like most of Clooney’s movies, don’t care about his life outdoors of his work as an actor and director and have forgiven him for as soon as taking part in Batman. However, midway by “Jay Kelly,” I started to surprise with astonishment:
Does Clooney assume he’s underrated?
“Jay Kelly” could as properly have simply been titled Being George Clooney, because the character remembers that he arrived across the time of the “first ‘90210’” and, in a painfully shameless second, Kelly stares at himself in a mirror and compares himself to Cary Grant.
Then there’s the much-discussed ultimate scene the place (probably not a spoiler) Kelly watches a montage of his movie work and, as an alternative of it being faux clips starring the younger actor who ably performed Kelly early on, it’s all snippets from Clooney’s actual movie profession.
It’s a weird alternative, as a result of it as soon as once more underlines how Clooney ought to have performed “himself” as an alternative of the thinly veiled Kelly and, severely, are we imagined to get teary-eyed, as Clooney visibly does, clips from “The Peacemaker” (2007) and “Leatherheads” (2008)?
Contemplating how Clooney did a 2012 Oscar roundtable interview the place he bashed “The Skinny Purple Line” (1998) and author/director Terrence Malick, bragging that he was glad to get minimize out of many of the film, it appears disingenuous to have that clip right here.
For this film to work, you want an actor with a protracted profession that has had plenty of ups and downs and was by no means as widespread as Clooney, who’s an Oscar winner, former Individuals Journal “Sexiest Man Alive” and performed Danny Ocean 3 times.
Regardless of how you are feeling about Clooney, his movie profession is an excessive amount of of a hit story to benefit a down-on-his-luck quasi-kinda-sorta-biopic.
Watching Mickey Rourke in “The Wrestler” (2008) is to witness an artist battle his previous glories and missteps in uncooked self-analysis; right here, I by no means purchased it. Clooney has conveyed insecurity significantly better in different motion pictures and sometimes seems extra susceptible throughout interviews when he laments about “Batman & Robin” (1997).
My simple picks for a Kelly recast could be Michael Douglas or Michael Keaton, solely the previous did this type of late-career soul looking out automobile in “Solitary Man” (2009) and the latter already made the way more daring, thematically comparable and superior “Birdman” (2024).
Right here’s one other concept: swap the roles performed by Clooney and Sandler! Though now rightfully acknowledged as an astonishing dramatic actor, Sandler’s profession early on had a hard-won trajectory – really, scratch that, Sandler already did this type of film: Judd Apatow’s great “Humorous Individuals” (2009).
Right here’s one other dread-inducing thought I had whereas watching “Jay Kelly”:
Has the monster success of “Barbie” (2023) spoiled Baumbach? Did co-writing that massive hit give Baumbach, previously an trade outsider, an ongoing want to seek out for mainstream acceptance?
It’s exhausting to imagine that Baumbach, the writer of bitter, defiantly disagreeable dramas which might be a problem for his actors as a lot as his viewers, would wish to make one thing this fluffy and inconsequential.
The place is the Baumbach who authored and directed the caustic “Greenberg” (2010) or the vicious “Margot on the Wedding ceremony” (2007) or the brutal “Marriage Story” (2019) and “The Squid and the Whale” (2005)? Baumbach opens “Jay Kelly” with a showy one-take shot that under no circumstances matches, not to mention deserves comparability to, the beginning of Robert Altman’s “The Participant” (1992).
Baumbach’s newest is shiny and utterly pointless.
The saving grace of “Jay Kelly” is Sandler who, as soon as once more, demonstrates that he has the guts of a personality actor and, when examined, can play nearly anybody.
If one is de facto needing to rejoice Clooney’s contribution to cinema, I like to recommend revisiting “Michael Clayton” (2007), “O Brother The place Artwork Thou?” (2000), “Up within the Air” (2009), “Out of Sight” (1998), “Solaris” (2002), “Three Kings” (1999), “The Descendants” (2011) and “Implausible Mr. Fox” (2009).
I’d even throw in a forgotten gem like “The Good German” (2006). Clooney’s is terrific in all of these. On the reverse finish, I’d decide “Ticket to Paradise” (2022) and this film.
One and a half stars (out of 4)