After the kind of meh response to Noah Baumbach’s “Jay Kelly” in Venice a month ago, I didn’t know what to expect.
But seeing the comedy about fame, friendship, and the meaning of life last night at the New York Film Festival, I’m relieved to say “Jay Kelly” is a tremendous film.
George Clooney and Adam Sandler lead a really stunning cast who never miss a beat. Baumbach, directing from a screenplay he wrote with actress Emily Mortimer, has made maybe his most accessible and embracing film, certainly since “The Meyerowitz Stories,” which featured Sandler in a similarly sympathetic role.
There was much talk out of Venice that “Clooney plays himself” in “Jay Kelly,” which, of course, isn’t correct. He does play a very successful aging movie star who’s grown disillusioned with a life that includes three failed marriages, two daughters, and an entourage that trails around after him. Sandler is part of that entourage as Jay Kelly’s loyal manager and personal fixer, Ron, upon whom Jay relies entirely.
Even though other people trail around after Jay, like Laura Dern as his long time publicist, the movie is basically a two hander supported by wonderful players who come in and out of the picture. Apart from Dern, there’s also the great Stacy Keach as Jay’s father, Riley Keough and Grace Edwards his daughters, and Jim Broadbent as his mentor.
The linchpin supporting player, though, is Billy Crudup as a former acting school friend turned rival who believes Jay stole his life from him. As in every movie, TV show, and play, Crudup memorably lights up the proceedings, creating an entire backstory for the movie in just a couple of pungent scenes.
This whole gang lives and dies on Baumbach and Mortimer’s inventively constructed screenplay. A big chunk of the movie takes place on a train from Paris to Florence, Italy where Jay — who’s genially stalking his youngest daughter on a summer vacation before she goes to college — will receive a lifetime achievement award. (This is very funny sunplot featuring Patrick Wilson as a younger star getting the same honor.)
There are a number of well woven flashbacks to Jay’s early days, so we can see how he got to this summer of discontent. There also several tropes that play back and forth in that screenplay, all very gentle send ups of stars’ lives including contract riders that insist on slices of cheesecake that Jay doesn’t even like, and so on.
Both actors are revelations. Clooney has needed a part like this for a long time. It’s his best work since his “Up in the Air”/”Michael Clayton” days. There’s none of that self-referential goofiness that sometimes pervades his roles. He’s restrained and dead serious, which makes the laughs and tears around him and from him so much more pungent. This is Clooney’s best role since “Gravity” in 2013, and “The Descendants” in 2011, roughly 12 years.
Sandler — whose main career is built on juvenile silliness — is a wise owl here, just as he was in “Meyerowitz.” He’s a mensch juggling is life and Jay’s. As Jay is having a late in life crisis he sets off Ron’s own questioning if, after maybe 30 years, is this all worth it? Ron is constantly trying to placate Jay while rationalizing his own investment in a career he’s helped to create. Jay and Ron’s friendship reminded me of Rick Dalton and Cliff Booth’s duet in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.” They can’t live without each other, and it’s vexing.
I shouldn’t leave out Nicholas Britell’s lovely score and Linus Sandgren’s rich cinematography. Production designer Mark Tidlesley’s gets kudos for making a train its own character.
“Jay Kelly” joins my list of “Sinners,” “One Battle After Another,” “Blue Moon,” and “Deliver Me from Nowhere,” and — yes, “Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale” — as one of the best films of what”s turning into an excellent year. See it on a big screen starting November 14th, and then on Netflix December 5th.
