“All my memories are movies.”
Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly is more relatable than one would think since it’s ostensibly about a greatly respected and beloved movie star who finds himself, at 60, wondering what his life has been about, who his friends are and whether he’s made the right choices. More importantly, what will his next move be? Anyone over 50, heck even over 40, can understand those urgent, self-reflexive feelings and that need to reevaluate. Jane Fonda has often said that it’s only in the looking back—the investigating—that we can actually move forward.
There have been an abundance of movies made about famous movie stars, many of them superficial, never going much beyond the surface. But with Jay Kelly, we have Noah Baumbach at the helm, the writer-director who gave us The Squid and the Whale, Margot at the Wedding and Marriage Story. His co-writer, Emily Mortimer, is a terrific actor as well (and a part of the incredible ensemble). So, the film, which owes nods to Fellini’s 8 ½ and Woody Allen’s Stardust Memories, does it’s best to do a deep dive into the psyche of the titular character.
The basic plot follows Jay wrapping his latest film, which closes with a death scene, before he’s about to start a brand new movie, that was originally written for a 35-year-old actor. His “team” is very excited about his doing this project–of course they would be since it means beaucoup money for them—he, is apprehensive. The death of the director that began his career (poignantly played by Jim Broadbent), forces Jay to begin thinking about his past. So begins the Jay Kelly odyssey, literally and figuratively, as he follows his young daughter from Paris to Tuscany (where he apprehensively agrees to receiving a life achievement award) and he embarks on a journey within as well.
Baumbach and his team have hit casting gold with George Clooney, who, I would not necessarily call a great actor—he’s certainly been good and had moments of greatness onscreen, but he is the quintessential movie star—a throwback right up there with Cary Grant, Gary Cooper (who the film invokes) and Paul Newman (who was both). In and as Jay Kelly, Clooney has his best film role to date, one where he can perfectly marry the actor with his movie star persona. He’s a man on the precipice, looking back (in wonderfully and inventively filmed flashbacks), doubting his decisions and the people he’s hurt in the process and wondering if it was all worth it.
This should be a slam-dunk Oscar nomination for Clooney.
The supporting cast is filled with fab performances beginning with Billy Crudup as Timothy, Jay’s best friend in acting school, now a pediatrician, who resents Jay for basically stealing his life. Crudup, in just a few scenes, represents the legion of actors and artists out there who were the also rans and who will forever wonder how their lives would have changed if only (fill in the blank). Charlie Rowe and Louis Partridge are also terrific as the younger Jay and Timothy, in one key flashback scene.
Adam Sandler does a fine job as Jay’s manager and only real friend. Although as Jay reminds him, “You’re my friend who takes 15% of what I make!”
Also great in supporting roles are Laura Dern, Riley Keough, Lars Eidinger and Patrick Wilson. The only actor I felt was miscast is Stacey Keach as Kelly’s hard-ass dad.
The movie is constantly shedding light on identity and performance. Actors lie for a living, but even when they’re not acting, they’re performing the role of star. At one point, while on a train from Paris to Tuscany, Kelly chats with the “regular” people on board. When his handlers balk, he argues, “How can I play people if I don’t know people.” It’s a poignant sequence simply because Kelly will never be able to be one of those people ever again. He can only watch them and mingle, but as the superstar he is, to his awestruck fans.
Themes that also loom large in the film include memory, regret and the choices we make and the consequences of those choices.
Baumbach treats all his characters with compassion and as much authenticity as each role will allow. And that’s precious.
The one thing we don’t get enough of a sense of in Jay Kelly, is the joy of moviemaking and the fulfillment an actor can feel embodying different roles. We understand the allure, who wouldn’t want to be famous? But Baumbach should have spent a bit more time showing us why choosing this life was so tantalizing beyond the obvious. Without that we get a sense that he and his team are leaning towards the idea that someone in Clooney’s shoes would have been better off choosing some obscure way to make a living. Would George or Julia Roberts or Emma Stone go back and do it differently?
Jay Kelley is being presented In Competition at the Venice Film Festival.
https://www.labiennale.org
