Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Noah Baumbach
Starring: George Clooney, Noah Baumbach, Emily Mortimer, Laura Dern, Billy Crudup, Stacy Keach, Riley Keough, Jim Broadbent, Greta Gerwig, Patrick Wilson, Eve Hewson, Lenny Henry, Isla Fisher, Alba Rohrwacher
Won't someone think of the handsome multimillionaire movie stars?
Noah Baumbach's Jay Kelly should have been titled "First World Problems: The Movie." It's a tone deaf pity party for the elites of the world, centred on a wealthy and talented movie star who looks like George Clooney. But Jay Kelly isn't happy. He's one of those obscenely rich and famous people who like to tell the rest of us how fame and fortune isn't all it's cracked up to be. Tellingly, none of these people ever trade their fame and fortune for a bedsit and a job bagging groceries.
Coming to the tail end of his career, Kelly has a crisis sparked by three incidents: his teenage daughter Daisy (Grace Edwards) announces she's going to spend the summer travelling around Europe rather than hanging out with her dad; the director who gave him his big break (Jim Broadbent) passes away; and a reunion with a bitter former acting school classmate (Billy Crudup) ends in a fist fight.
Cancelling his next movie, Kelly makes the terrible decision to follow his daughter on her trip. He's accompanied by his entourage, which includes his manager Ron (Adam Sandler), his publicist Liz (Laura Dern) and his hairdresser Candy (Emily Mortimer, who co-writes with Baumbach). As his hangers-on drop off one by one, Kelly realises he's mistaken sycophancy for friendship throughout his career.
Kelly is such a thinly drawn character that it's impossible to see anyone other than Clooney when we look at him. There's a scene in which he repeats his name in front of a mirror, but all we hear is "George Clooney, George Clooney, George Clooney." To be fair, making Kelly a soulless husk is kind of the point of the movie. He's spent his career playing other people and no longer knows who Jay Kelly is. But that doesn't make for an engaging protagonist, especially when the movie doesn't appear to know who Jay Kelly is either. It makes Kelly seem like someone we might feel sorry for if he wasn't rich, successful and looked like George Clooney, but it also mocks anyone who draws attention to his flaws as though it's on his side. Take the flashback that sees him accompany his estranged adult daughter Jessica (Riley Keough) to a session with her therapist. The scene is played for cheap laughs in a manner that mocks the idea of therapy and introspection rather than critiquing Kelly's inability to his flaws.
Baumbach's film is insufferably patronising to anyone it considers a "normal" person, i.e the rest of us. When Kelly boards a train bound for Tuscany, it's populated by the sort of stereotypes you usually find on an airliner in a disaster movie. Kelly instantly charms them and speaks condescendingly about how great it must be to not be rich, successful and look like George Clooney. They're all so delighted to be in his presence that nobody tells him he's being a patronising asshole. This is Baumbach's The Great Beauty, but at least Paolo Sorrentino added some Italian style to his condescension.
Baumbach's usual wit is largely absent here. This is a film that takes itself far too seriously for one-liners. The few attempts at comedy, like a bizarre scene where Kelly chases a handbag snatcher, land with a thud. The best example of this type of movie is Preston Sturges' Sullivan's Travels, in which Joel McCrea's pretentious movie director comes to learn that people with shitty lives would rather be entertained than lectured by millionaires. That movie's most famous scene sees McCrea watch a screening of a Disney cartoon while surrounded by laughing prisoners. Baumbach homages that scene here when Kelly attends a tribute to his career at a festival in Tuscany, but rather than being in the company of those on the lowest rung of society's ladder, he's surrounded by his fellow elites. The scene is supposed to make Kelly think that he might have lived an empty life but at least he has something to show for it, but as we watch clips from Clooney's own career play out in a montage, we're merely reminded of how many duds the actor has appeared in. Unlike Kelly, Clooney is an actor who never seemed to care that much about being a movie star, and younger generations probably associate him more with his coffee commercials. He might be able to sell us a cuppa, but he struggles to sell himself as someone so consumed by his craft that he's forgotten how to live. Next time you're forced to spend a week eating instant ramen to cover your rent, spare a thought for poor old Jay Kelly.
Jay Kelly is on Netflix from December 5th.
