It’s nothing new how Hollywood likes to keep an eye on itself. J Kelly, the new Netflix release in which George Clooney plays a worried movie star, is another addition to this list. Now that Noah Baumbach has made a movie about stardom, that reflects — at best — quite a change. He’s certainly no longer the indie filmmaker who made The Squid and the Whale and Francis Ha, and that’s okay. But J Kelly is so generous in spirit and so sweet in his reflection on the cost of stardom that it feels like a different filmmaker entirely. There is no lack of the self-aware irony and situational comedy that made his films so unique. I believe this is a change in the director’s own journey after the praise of Marriage Story and the massive success of Barbie, for which he co-wrote the screenplay.
Base
In J Kelly, which Baumbach co-wrote with actor Emily Mortimer, the lens is still on Hollywood, but the tone is decidedly one-note, thoughtful and moody. It’s not that impressive, but feels thin and spread out at times. Jay Kelly is going through a crisis. He is followed by his team, including his manager, Ron (Adam Sandler), and his publicist, Liz (Laura Dern, superb in a thankless role). They fail to keep up with him because he is either too much or never enough, always at a distance. A chance meeting with an old friend Timothy (Billy Crudup, who steals the show in just one extended scene) tells him about the cycle of events that led him to stardom. Timothy accuses her of stealing his career, his performances, his life… and Jay can’t get rid of her as easily as he’d like. So he decides to cut his schedule short to embark on a trip to Italy to accept the tribute, but actually to follow his daughter, Daisy (Grace Edwards). The film, sometimes meandering and the next moment generous, moves along at a graceful pace.
movie review
jay kelly
Famous movie star Jay Kelly and his dedicated manager, Ron, embark on an unexpectedly intense trip to Europe.
mold
George Clooney, Adam Sandler, Laura Dern, Billy Crudup
It’s George Clooney who saves the day. He’s a movie star who plays a movie star in this sad character study. Notice how his real name also has a similar ring to J Kelly. Is Clooney borrowing from his own life to play this man? He certainly knows a thing or two about being the center of attention in any room, so it’s a kind of meta-narrative that elevates the Oscar winner’s performance to a degree. It’s a performance that can only come from life lived, from stepping through the movie star experience, and Clooney’s face and personality, his entire physical presence visible in almost every frame of the film, adds that much-needed focus to the film.
However, the Jay Kelly film seems willfully ignorant of its own leads. Baumbach presents him as a movie star coming to terms with the pain of a life spent chasing his dreams, examining how his choices left many people with no other option but to leave. J Kelly grants his movie star humility, and he gets a chance to re-imagine his life at some points. This is their story to tell again. Yet, in its generosity, the film lampoons the state of filmmaking, the creative process that must be balanced with the business of sports, and much more. The film offers excessive sweetness, bolstered by a thin script that never quite grasps its subject. Nicholas Britell’s score is beautiful as always, and as the film moves to the lush Italian countryside, Linus Sandgren’s cinematography makes the frames come alive more than words ever could.
what works
However, it is Adam Sandler who emerges as the biggest takeaway from J Kelly. As a dedicated manager who treats Jay Kelly as more than just a star, he gives a wonderfully nuanced performance. A small scene with him and Laura Dern might be the closest the film gets to spending some time outside the dedicated shadow of stardom. This is Sandler’s best performance in years, finally getting a chance to showcase his dramatic acting skills. In Sandler’s many silences, Jay Kelly expands and confronts the reality of showbiz survival from the sidelines.
J Kelly is a movie stuck in the middle, like the train it depicts, yearning for something bigger, better, more real. It always requires one or two signals. However, as the film gets closer to those beautiful moments inside the darkness of the theater, it’s an irony that the film was released on Netflix on the same day the platform made its historic acquisition of Warner Bros. The film offers no reflection on the medium or its future due to its self-indulgence.