Against the odds, and playing someone clearly partly based on himself, ageing Hollywood heartthrob George Clooney gives one of his finest performances in Noah Baumbach’s wistful new comedy-drama Jay Kelly (a world premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival). President Trump may have recently mocked the socially and politically progressive actor as a “second-rate movie ‘star’”, but it will be no surprise at all if Clooney receives major awards recognition for his work here.
Jay, Clooney’s character, is a pampered, narcissistic movie legend. He’s personable and charming, but so devoted to his career that he doesn’t notice the emotional wreckage he leaves in his wake. Whenever there are problems in his life – of both the domestic and professional varieties – he’ll rely on his long-suffering manager Ron (Adam Sandler) or his sardonic publicist Liz (Laura Dern) to clear up the mess. People call him an “empty vessel” and ask: “Is there a person in there?”
Clooney’s achievement is to make us care about a character who, at first glance, is such a superficial and self-obsessed figure. 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.
A very cleverly crafted screenplay, co-written by Baumbach and British actor-writer Emily Mortimer, balances the in-jokes with perceptive observations about status anxiety, the vapidity of celebrity culture, and the fragility of family ties. There are plenty of witty lines that reveal how out of touch Jay has become. Told that a close friend has just died, he responds: “F***, I’ve got to call him.”
The film shifts gears as it goes on, artfully inserted flashbacks to his career’s ascent giving way to more of a road movie approach: Jay heads to Europe to receive a lifetime achievement award from an Italian film festival, but secretly he’s on a mission to reconnect with his teenage daughter (newcomer Grace Edwards) before she goes off to college.
This may be Clooney’s show, but the film is aided by very lively cameos from an eclectic cast. There’s Stacy Keach as Jay’s obnoxious father, Billy Crudup as an embittered figure from Jay’s past, Riley Keough as the older daughter he’s never spent much time with, Greta Gerwig as Ron’s wife, and flamboyant German actor Lars Eidinger as a tourist on a cycling trip who crosses paths with Jay in bizarre circumstances.
It’s easy to spot the many filmic influences. At times, Jay seems like a Hollywood version of the egotistical professor played by Victor Sjöström in Ingmar Bergman’s Wild Strawberries. Like the professor, he is consumed with regret and a yearning to go back in time. There are echoes, too, of some of Woody Allen’s more reflective comedies, for instance, 1980’s Stardust Memories, which has similar scenes of celebrities swarmed by adoring fans. Jay even shares certain traits (albeit not the drinking) with the arrogant but over-the-hill actor played by James Mason in the 1954 version of A Star Is Born.
“It’s a hell of a responsibility to be yourself. It’s much easier to be somebody else,” reads the Sylvia Plath quote that opens the movie. Like Cary Grant and Gary Cooper, two stars whose names are invoked here, Clooney seldom strays too far in his movies from his long-established persona as the handsome everyman. However, if he is playing yet another variation on himself in Jay Kelly, at least he’s doing so in a far more raw and revealing way than he has ever done before. That’s why a film that looks in its early scenes as if it’s going to be unbearably smug ultimately tugs so hard on the heartstrings.
Dir: Noah Baumbach; Starring: George Clooney, Adam Sandler, Laura Dern, Billy Crudup, Riley Keough, Grace Edwards, Stacy Keach, Jim Broadbent; 132 mins
‘Jay Kelly’ is released in UK cinemas on 14 November and streams on Netflix from 5 December