Hollywood has a penchant for having its biggest awards contenders center themselves close to home. Both in terms of the greater Los Angeles area, but moreover the act of making movies about movies. From Singin’ in the Rain to 8 1/2 to Babylon it’s a trope to have a number of fall contenders be at least a little masturbatory for the silver screen fiends on the west coast. Jay Kelly falls into that trap, but also manages to show the things that are lost when someone so doggedly pursues fame.

Starring George Clooeny as the titular Kelly, the film is centered around a mid (late) life crisis of sorts after famous actor Jay Kelly loses a mentor and bumps into his old friend Timothy (Billy Crudup). Timothy explains that Kelly stole his life, stole his job, and stole his girlfriend. He also talks about the things that he’s gained. His relationship he has with his children, and his wife, and the life that he’s been able to build, things that Jay has not had time for. Jay’s children are disinterested in him, he’s divorced and lonely, the only people in his life that he interacts with are those that he pays. His manager Ron (Adam Sandler), his publicist Liz (Laura Dern), his hair stylist Candy (Emily Mortimer), and more in his entourage of hangers on blur the line between employee and comrade so much even they don’t really know which side they land on.

Jay realizes that he needs to focus on the things that matter, but also doesn’t seem sure how to go about doing that. He does what feels good, what feels like a character in a movie might do if he needed to come down to Earth. So he tracks down his daughter Daisy (Grace Edwards) on her summer holiday in France and tags along with her and her friends until he can make it to a tribute in his honor in Tuscany. During his journey Jay calls his eldest (and estranged) daughter Jessica (Riley Keough) to try to rekindle the family magic that he once felt. Before the lights became too bright, before he became a massive star that had struck a chord in so many countless people’s lives. Jay tries to patch up all the relationships in his life he let sit on the sidelines while he became a star. The film shows flashbacks to Jay’s life as he navigates the European countryside by train. Was it all worth it? To lose time with his family in order to be the legendary Jay Kelly?

And even as it seems he’s trying to better himself he dismisses those that he seems to consider friends. Adam Sandler’s performance as Jay’s manager Ron is a highlight of the movie. Ron’s doing the same thing Jay is doing just on a smaller stage. He is actively putting his family in second place to climb the ladder of fame to stardom. It’s just it’s not Ron who would or will ever wind up being the star, but his client. That is the job after all, to take your fifteen percent so that your guy comes out on top, after all. Sandler’s patented boiling rage hiding just beneath the surface is a boon to the character of Ron, and while The Joeys have given Sandler his roses, I expect the Academy might finally be giving him his long awaited Oscar nomination at last this coming year.

Jay Kelly feels at once like Bojack Horseman and Babylon and La La Land. It’s both trying to wrestle with the problems that chasing success can cause, and also highlight the wonders that the chase itself can create. Noah Baumbach’s script is as punchy as ever, and the cast of characters are more than capable of motor mouthing their way through the biting dialogue. In the end Jay Kelly feels like an exceptionally made picture that we’ve seen a variety of versions of already. Particularly the ending reads remarkably like the final sequence of Babylon, where we see Diego Calva witnesses the beauties that the monstrosity of Hollywood can create. Jay Kelly threads an intensely similar needle, just in a much more palatable way. Whether or not that’s an improvement is up to the audience at hand.

4/5