★★★★★--Movie about looking back after a lifetime of success and realizing you fucked up. Watched this the day before my sister’s wedding. A wedding I was officiating. Seemed like the best movie possible going into the occasion.
George Clooney plays title character Jay Kelly, who is a famous actor much like George Clooney who also starred in all the same roles the real George Clooney starred in. Things get pretty meta. He is always wonderful, this maybe especially so. Noah Baumbach directs. Wrote it with Emily Mortimer who plays Jay Kelly’s hairstylist.
Rest of the cast is star-studded. Adam Sandler knocks it out of the park as Jay’s manager Ron. He has a wife back home, played by director Greta Gerwig (who is Baumbach’s real life wife), but he also has unresolved history with Jay's publicist Liz, played by the ageless Laura Dern. Billy Crudup is an actor/former friend of Jay’s that he screwed over to get his big break. Elvis’s granddaughter Riley Keough is Jessica Kelly, Jay's elder daughter, while Grace Edwards is Daisy Kelly, Jay's younger daughter who he did a little bit better of a job raising. Stacy Keach plays Jay’s dad. And Patrick Wilson plays actor Ben Alcock who is also an A-lister managed by Ron but is not quite on Jay’s level of stardom.
While I loved it, it kind of lost me in the last 30 minutes before correcting course to stick the landing. This wonderful meditation on aging, legacy, power, perception, family, stardom, celebrity, celebrity worship, friendship, brotherhood, betrayal, and guilt. Yeah, it’s pretty great.
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