Jay Kelly is the latest from director and Barbie cowriter Noah Baumbach currently streaming on Netflix after a very limited theatrical release — just enough to be Academy Award eligible of course. The movie opens with a Sylvia Plath quote revealed through smoke in order to emphasize its ephemeral quality: “It’s a hell of a responsibility to be yourself. It’s much easier to be somebody else or nobody at all.”
While you’re mulling that over, a five-minute tracking shot ensues showing a big Hollywood movie production in full swing. It’s the last scene for the star, Jay Kelly (George Clooney), and it’s a death scene. Lots of manly emoting, with a gunshot wound and a loyal little dog and all. And then, Jay Kelly is “wrapped out,” with such emotion that you wonder if he’s being “wrapped out” forever, the last shot of Jay’s last film, though there’s no reason given why that should be. He’s sixty, true, and he’s about to plunge into a period of messy crisis in his personal life. But he also appears to be such a Teflon-coated star, his popularity undented, there’s nothing stopping him from carrying on as before.
Jay Kelly is proving to be quite a popular dramedy on Netflix. Presumably because it’s so lavishly made and such a smooth, creamy consumable, while at the same time flattering audiences that we’re all at long last really giving this whole film-stardom phenomenon a big think. Jay Kelly comes to the solemn realization that “all my memories are movies,” a dramatic statement suggesting he’s a hollow man, hardly more than a flickering image himself. Meanwhile, he seems quite meaty and substantial, and all of his memories that we do see are of his bruising encounters with the disappointed people in his life.
This is a mild, surprise-free portrait of the title character, a movie star played by a movie star, George Clooney. In fact, the point seems to be that the role was designed to be played by Clooney. Like Clooney, Jay…
Auteur: Eileen Jones
