SPOILER-FREE PLOT SUMMARY
Through the death of a mentor, highly decorated and universally-adored actor Jay Kelly (played by George Clooney) starts to wonder if his career in Hollywood was worth missing out on his kids’ lives. Meanwhile, his youngest daughter, Daisy (Grace Edwards), is heading to Europe with some friends before she starts college and her impending absence only causes Kelly to question his career even more. Kelly makes a rash decision to follow his daughter to Europe and brings his manager Ron (Adam Sandler), publicist Liz (Laura Dern) and the rest of his entourage with him, pulling them away from their own families with zero notice. He finds his daughter on a train and awkwardly invites her (and her friends) to the award show he’s being honored at later that weekend but she’d rather stick with her original plans. He then invites his dad (Stacy Keach) but he leaves before the tribute. He then invites his estranged eldest daughter, Jessica (Riley Keough), but she has no interest. Kelly slowly realizes that he’s a star to strangers but not revered by anyone close to him and this only exacerbates the pain of choosing Hollywood as his profession.
SPOILER-FREE REVIEW
This is one of the year’s best films, period.
There are many reasons he deserves some shine for JAY KELLY but one example director Noah Baumbach warrants Oscar consideration is his choice to have his actors walk out of a current day scene into a flashback scene. Is it ground breaking? No, we’ve seen similar transitions before, but each one feels perfect and appropriate for the movie and, as a result, each and every one serves the moment.
As far as the performers go, an all-star team heads this up and they don’t disappoint. Clooney is great in everything so that’s not a surprise, Dern is solid and Billy Crudup plays the awkward, jealous old classmate with the perfect level of mysteriousness, but the real standout is Sandler. Known for zany, obnoxious and childish antics, we actually have seen great performances from him before — notably in REIGN OVER ME and UNCIT GEMS — but JAY KELLY might be the best performance of his career. He brings emotion, depth and gravity but with a sense of relatability that cuts right through.
Another feather in JAY KELLY’s cap is that it’s a great streamer. Yes, it was nice to see it on a big screen but it doesn’t demand the amount of tension and immersion that ruined the overall response to A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE. So please Netflix, if you’re going to insist on giving your original movies only limited theatrical runs, let’s do more of this and less of that.
The length is a problem, however. I would’ve liked to have seen at least 15 minutes shaved off the 2 hour and 12 minute run time. Obviously, with that kind of length, the character development is outstanding (even for supporting roles) but it’s so well done, well directed and well acted that I don’t think you need everything it offers. Put another way, I believe it would have the same impact were it a few minutes shorter.
If you love a good drama, you’ll love this. If you have any connection to the entertainment industry, you’ll relate to this. If you’re a fresh empty nester, you’ll be impacted by this. The performances bring it to life but the foundation for it’s excellence is in its story. Baumbach and Emily Mortimer penned a relatable, grounded, well written script. Being a parent, lines like “Wait, Dad, it’s not over!” will haunt me forever. And that’s JAY KELLY’s biggest triumph: the powerful reflection it forces the audience to go through, regardless of their stage of life. I just wish it didn’t take over two hours to get there.
JKG SCORE: 8.0
Untitled Film Project 