Noah Baumbach’s new film, Jay Kelly (Netflix), presents us with a George Clooney “just like” himself, taking on the character of a famous Hollywood actor who is going through a peculiar identity crisis, anguished, but not too much. In the company of his agent, Ron (Adam Sandler), Jay is preparing to travel to Italy where, in Tuscany, he will be the target of a tribute. The suggestion of some autobiographical echoes seems to be reinforced when, precisely in the session in which he is honored, we see a montage of images from Jay Kelly’s career that, after all, belong to films starring Clooney himself. – Three Kings (David O. Russell, 1999), Syrian (Stephen Gaghan, 2005), In the Clouds (Jason Reitman, 2009), etc.
Anyway, let’s not simplify. In fact, to avoid confusion, Clooney has said that Jay Kelly’s character was not conceived as a reflection, even an ambiguous one, of his personal trajectory. It is true that Baumbach wrote the script (in collaboration with Emily Mortimer, who plays Jay’s personal hairdresser) with Clooney in mindbut it is no less true that, upon reading it, your first reaction was one of clear demarcation. In an interview with US public radio (NPR), he even remembered what he said to Baumbach: “This guy is a bit goofy!”
Beyond the fame
In the same interview, Clooney highlights the pedagogical value of the story that Baumbach proposed to him: “For me, it was a good lesson to understand how success has little to do with the person themselves.” Put another way: “When things go well, that doesn’t mean we’re as brilliant as they tell us – but they say. And we won’t be as horrible as they tell us when things don’t go well – but they say.” Integrating the critical heritage of some classics of American production – let us remember the masterpiece The Bad and Beautiful/ Cativos do Mal (1952), by Vincente Minnelli, with Kirk Douglas and Lana Turner -, Jay Kelly It has the didacticism, and also the irony, of a vision capable of relativizing the current boasts of fame and success.
Author of titles such as The Squid and the Whale (2005) e Frances Ha (2012), which stars his wife, Greta Gerwig (also present in the new film, in the role of Ron’s wife), Baumbach continues to search for the nostalgic echoes of a melodramatic heritage that, obviously not by chance, now intersects with the people and places of the film industry.
Two vectors of the argument are especially significant in his disenchanted vision, always filtered by an unshakable love for cinema. Firstly, Jay’s confrontation with Timothy (Billy Crudup), a companion from his youth, also an actor, whose friendship remains contaminated by a rivalry that is difficult to overcome. After, the difficult, if not impossible, dialogue between Jay and his two daughters, Jessica and Daisy (Riley Keough and Grace Edwards, both magnificent)in a generation gap that doubles the actor’s primordial loneliness.
In fact, the dramatic dynamics of this collection of characters (Baumbach’s films almost always expose the unstable ties of a small, more or less familiar tribe) are also a reflection of a genuine dedication to the nuances of the actors’ work. Let us not forget, therefore, that in the cast we also find Jim Broadbent, Laura Dern, Patrick Wilson, Alba Rohrwacher and the well-reappeared Stacy Keach (in the almost burlesque, but not caricatural, role of Jay’s father).
Hollywood ou Netflix?
Beyond the parallels already mentioned, it is clear that Jay Kelly does not appear as a critical (or self-critical) review of George Clooney’s artistic career. In any case, it will also make sense to remember that, At 64, he is experiencing a process of reinvention that, interestingly enough, included his debut on Broadway. Thus, this year, Clooney has already produced and starred on stage in the adaptation of one of the films he starred in and directed, the admirable Good Night, and Good Luck (2005), about the defense of freedom of expression by Edward R. Murrow, in the early 1950s, on CBS screens.
Ultimately, the release of Jay Kelly takes place in a context of many tensions within American cinema, motivated by the possible acquisition of one of the great classic studios, Warner Bros., by Netflix. Even considering that Jay Kelly is an object prior to such tribulations, it is not possible to omit the bizarre irony: celebrating the artistic and emotional heritage of Hollywood, Jay Kelly is a production with a seal of approval… Netflix!