Movie Review: Jay Kelly

4 stars out of 5

Hollywood loves movies about Hollywood. Sure, it is the absolute most cliched topic for a Hollywood writer to write about, but A) People who watch movies love movies, so it’s not too risky a subject to present, and B) Write what you know, and C) Noah Baumbach has been directing movies for 30 years and this is his first “look behind the scenes” so, let’s cut him some slack.

As if to rub our noses in the delightful meta-ness of it all, Noah has George Clooney playing Jay Kelly who is basically George Clooney. Sure, Clooney has often been categorized as an actor who always plays himself, and someone in the movie says that to Jay Kelly, who explains that it’s difficult to portray oneself. Point, Clooney! Uh, I mean, Kelly!

The supporting cast is fun and well-chosen. Adam Sandler may earn an Oscar nomination playing against type as Kelly’s long-suffering manager, a character at the crux of one of the movie’s throughlines: Can people be true friends if one is an employee of another? Two other staffers (who show the sacrifices that underlings make for a superstar, who made many sacrifices himself to become a superstar!) are the always great Laura Dern and, in a smaller role, Emily Mortimer who co-write the script with director Baumbach. Whew! Patrick Wilson, who is less famous than Clooney, plays an actor who is less famous than Kelly. Billy Crudup does the same. Stacy Keach has a great time as Kelly’s dad and it’s nice to see him. For those Baumbach-heads keeping score, Dean Wareham has a cameo; I didn’t see Britta but that doesn’t mean she’s not in it, as IMDb doesn’t list either of them. And Greta Gerwig (Mrs. Noah) has a larger role than Emily Mortimer as Adam Sandler’s long-suffering wife.

Those sacrifices made for career, they can lead to regret. That’s a topic here. And can long-busted fences be mended? Another topic. Which add some depth to a generally light and often amusing film. It’s insane that a movie about movies starring a big movie star — who might get nominated as Best Actor for basically playing himself but doing it really, really well — is going to be on Netflix so soon (December 5). Somebody make a movie about that!