George Clooney’s performance in his forthcoming film, Jay Kelly, has seen the Hollywood star tipped for an Oscar nomination after the movie premiered at the Venice Film Festival on Thursday (28 August).
The film follows 64-year-old Clooney in the title role of an ageing actor who travels through Europe with his longtime manager Ron Sukenick (Adam Sandler), while reflecting on their life choices.
Early reviews of the film have been largely positive, with The Times calling it the actor’s “best performance ever”.
“He might even win an Oscar,” the critic suggested.
In a five-star review, The Telegraph dubbed the movie a “mid-life crisis masterpiece”, praising the “terrifically smart script” by Noah Baumbach and Emily Mortimer.
The film received a thunderous 10-minute standing ovation at Venice. Sandler’s performance has also garnered praise and Oscars buzz, according to IndieWire.
Clooney has won two Academy Awards, for Best Picture for Argo in 2013 and Best Supporting Actor in 2006 for Syriana, while also receiving a further six nominations during his career.
However, not everyone was impressed by his latest performance. The Guardian gave Jay Kelly a paltry one-star review, calling it a “wildly sentimental and self-indulgent piece of cine-narcissism”.
The Hollywood Reporter also gave the film a mixed reception, saying that although Sandler “creates an intimacy”, this was not backed by Clooney’s performance. “Witty and entertaining,” wrote lead critic David Rooney but “mid-tier Baumbach at best”.
The Independent’s Geoffrey Macnab awarded Jay Kelly four stars as he celebrated Clooney’s performance as one that blurs the line between the actor and his character.
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“Clooney’s achievement is to make us care about a character who, at first glance, is such a superficial and self-obsessed figure,” he wrote.
“The actor resorts to his usual tricks: the smarmy smile, the ironic quip and the false bonhomie. For once, though, the self-deprecating charm soon wears off and everybody begins to see through him. He needs to dye his hair and eyebrows, and you can see his wrinkles, too.”
Clooney has been absent from much of the promotional work surrounding the movie due to a sinus infection. However, he was present at the premiere along with the rest of the cast.
Happy Gilmore star Sandler described the script as a “gift” during the official press conference at Venice Film Festival.
“I’ve done two movies with Noah, and I could not be more proud to be in the feeling it gives you,” he said. “He knows how to do everything, and then he finds places to make you laugh. All our characters give you a moment to laugh and feel pain.
“As an actor, when you read a script like this you say, ‘Holy s***, I can’t believe I’m getting this gift.’”
