Noah Baumbach’s new Netflix picture Jay Kelly is a road movie that rambles across Europe, but also between past and present, cataloging the regrets of a man who seems to have everything. George Clooney plays an aging movie star confronting his professional and personal legacies during a spontaneous journey from Paris to Tuscany — he’s trying to reconnect with his Euro-tripping daughter while on his way to accept a lifetime achievement award in Italy.
Despite decades of fame and success, Jay finds himself profoundly lonely, perpetually surrounded by his doting but exhausted entourage: devoted manager Ron Sukenick (Adam Sandler), a stylist (Emily Mortimer), a bodyguard-assistant, and publicist Laura Dern.
Baumbach’s work is at its best when compelling characters are talking. In pictures like The Squid and the Whale, Greenberg, and Frances Ha, comedy, tragedy, and drama emerge from sharp dialogue delivered in grounded performances. Jay Kelly continues this tradition, proving funny, melancholy, tense, and even absurd as characters from different eras interact across the runtime of this movable feast. Clooney is reliably excellent here. He lends Jay all of his real-life movie star aura while also infusing the work’s introspective moments with an anxious, unsure energy that elevates this beyond mere self-portraiture. Sandler holds his own as Jay’s long-suffering manager, and Laura Dern is flawless as Jay’s publicist at the end of her rope.
When Jay learns that Peter Schneider (Jim Broadbent), the director who gave him his first major break, has died, the news triggers a period of reflection. The director was Jay’s mentor, but their last interaction saw Jay reject Schneider’s request to back a career-reviving project. Jay is between movies and back home looking forward to spending time with his daughter (Grace Edwards). Characteristically inattentive to his daughter’s plans, Jay doesn’t realize she’s planning her own European vacation until she tells him she’s already packing. He impulsively chases after her, threatening to miss the first day of shooting on a new production he’s already committed to.
Jay Kelly isn’t a holiday movie, but Baumbach deploys an A Christmas Carol device that finds Jay revisiting pivotal moments from his life. The conceit proves too self-conscious and sentimental, despite impressive technical execution. Baumbach and his team used in-camera special effects instead of digital trickery, allowing Clooney to literally walk from present-day scenes into the past without cuts or fades. Each flashback features younger Jay (Charlie Rowe) in various interactions with friends, mentors, and lovers. Viewers watch Jay watching his younger, ambitious, sometimes shallow and selfish self taking steps that built his career while estranging those closest to him. These glimpses of the past ultimately play as overlong distractions from the present-day road trip, where the characters’ camaraderie and conflicts feel immediate and real.
Co-written by Baumbach and Mortimer, Jay Kelly examines a man who has performed the role of Movie Star so long he’s forgotten how to be himself — consistently choosing fame over being present as husband, father, and friend. The work has notable strengths and weaknesses, but Baumbach’s dialogue-forward, performance-driven cinema remains engaging, and the ensemble cast — including Billy Crudup, Riley Keough, and Greta Gerwig — delivers uniformly strong work. Fans of the director’s character studies will still find Jay Kelly rewarding.
Jay Kelly is streaming on Netflix
Joe Nolan is a critic, columnist and performing singer/songwriter based in East Nashville. Find out more about his projects at www.joenolan.com.