Clooney, Sandler explore the cost of fame in Baumbach’s newest
Jay Kelly isn’t a documentary, but you’d be forgiven if you mistake it for one. The picture, directed by Noah Baumbach (Marriage Story) and co-written with the actress Emily Mortimer, is about an aging actor facing his mortality and reflecting on his personal and professional choices. That the titular fictional actor is played by George Clooney creates an odd melding of fact and fiction. As we watch Jay consider his past, present, and future, we can’t help but wonder how much of what we’re seeing on screen is really about Clooney himself. That dichotomy brings an added layer of curiosity to an already thoughtful and absorbing film.
The film’s meta quality is openly acknowledged, as Jay at one point is asked “What do you say to people who say you only play yourself?”, a question that has also dogged Clooney throughout his long career. The film winks at the audience, knowing we will have a hard time separating the character from the actor. But Baumbach smartly uses that awareness to create a wistful meditation on fame. We think we know actors like Jay (and, of course, Clooney) because we’ve seen them on screen so much; in many cases, we’ve even grown up with them. But we only know their fictional counterparts, not who they are as flesh-and-blood, real-life people. What’s interesting about Baumbach’s film is that it also posits the opposite of that problem: do actors truly know themselves? “All my memories are movies,” Jay says at one point. Who is he without his fame and entourage? He’s lost, and needs to find out.
Jay’s entourage includes his publicist Liz (Laura Dern), his manager Ron (Adam Sandler), and his daughters, the loving but independent Daisy (Grace Edwards) and estranged and wounded Jessica (Riley Keough). Jay’s relationship with all of them is explored within the overarching theme of authentic interpersonal dynamics. Are Ron and Liz Jay’s friends, or are they merely his employees? “We’re not to him what he is to us,” Liz tells Ron, who slowly begins to come to the same realization as he accompanies Jay on a trip to Italy for a career tribute.
Though Clooney receives top billing, Sandler gives a career-best performance as Ron, whose loyalty to a man he considers a friend starts to wane when he begins to acknowledge their relationship’s lack of reciprocity. Scenes between the increasingly lonely Jay and the compassionate but emotionally exhausted Ron are some of the movie’s best. While Clooney’s contemplative turn as Jay is bound to earn awards, Sandler’s empathetic performance is actually the more complex and stronger of the two.
The star-studded cast also features Patrick Wilson as another of Ron’s clients, a fellow actor whose ties to his supportive family contrast with Jay’s lack of close confidants. Billy Crudup goes blonde to play Timothy, an old acting school chum of Jay’s, whose reemergence in Jay’s life precipitates some of Jay’s soul searching. And veteran actors Jim Broadbent and Stacy Keach are stand outs in small roles as Jay’s mentor and father, respectively. Baumbach’s real-life wife Greta Gerwig is wasted, though, in a few scenes as Ron’s stressed out wife.
While Baumbach’s film is immensely watchable, it does have one inconsistency glaring enough to feel purposeful. In several flashback scenes featuring Jay and Timothy in their early twenties, Jay is played by Charlie Rowe, who distractingly looks nothing like Clooney. But, later in the film, at Jay’s tribute, we see a clip reel of Jay’s career highlights, going back decades. What would have made sense is for this montage to feature made-up movies using Rowe. But instead, Baumbach decides to show clips from actual George Clooney movies, which his fans will easily recognize. So, Jay looks like Rowe at some points, but like a true-life young Clooney in others? This incongruity can only be intentional. It’s another knowing wink from Baumbach and Clooney to the audience, that says yes, we know the poignancy of the aging actor looking back is reminding viewers of their fondness for Clooney himself, not for this character, Jay.
But that anomaly–intentional or not–isn’t enough to detract from this otherwise reflective and entertaining look at fame, family, and how our jobs can consume us to such a degree that one day we wake up and realize that’s all we have. What do all the accolades and recognition mean, and what do they cost? Is such a career worth its sacrifices? Jay’s not sure. As to what Baumbach and Clooney think, they’ve left that for us to decide.
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Jay Kelly is now playing in limited theaters, including at the Grand Lake in Oakland and the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael. It will open at the Landmark Opera Plaza in San Francisco and the Orinda Theater on Friday, November 21st, and will premiere on Netflix on December 5th.
