Jay Kelly

Hollywood loves making movies about itself. "Jay Kelly" is another one of those. It is made compelling by always watchable George Clooney, a movie star playing a movie star who is realizing that he has put everything else aside in pursuit of fame and his career. I'm not sure Hollywood people know that people in other fields and locations can also do that? It's actually not super uncommon! The movie star who gives up his family and relationships for glory at least gets the glory part - normal people just get dysfunctional families. Speaking of families, much as I enjoyed the beautiful way Noah Baumbach made this movie - it is absolutely gorgeous looking - it's also like massive nepo baby welfare! Good God. Practically everyone is someone famous. We get not just Elvis's granddaughter but also Bono's daughter! Adam Sandler, who is pretty good in the movie, has his real daughter playing his daughter. I'm sure there are more (I mean, lest we forget, Rosemary Clooney was a great!). I would have preferred more Jamie Demetriou, who gets a super tiny role alongside Patsy Ferran, who was a good Jane Austen. One girl who plays Clooney's daughter, Grace Edwards, has suspiciously few public details of her life out there... supposedly her parents were "in the military" and she traveled around during her childhood, so like how did she get from there to being in a Wes Anderson movie when she was 19, hmmm? It's fine, we both love the movie "Daisies," so go ahead Grace Edwards.

Anyway, it was beautifully shot and acted, but I think it thought it was a little deeper than it was. I hate to break it to Jay Kelly, but "The Greatest Showman," an absolutely silly and not deep musical, also ended with the star realizing that the greatest show was his daughter's dance recital all along. Lol.

The best part was the relationship between movie star Jay Kelly and his beleaguered manager, played by Adam Sandler, who is also coming to the realization that work has looked over-large in his life. But he doesn't have the consolation of being a movie star. However, I'm sure he's very rich and hangs out with movie stars, so I don't think this counts as any normal-people representation. Anyway, their relationship and intimacy at the end is the best part. Maybe a hint of doubt that those people who tell at you about "how work won't mourn you when you die, they'll just post your position" are missing the way work relationships can be real. Honestly, it's one of the only places for adults to make friends, and when you spend so much of your life with these people, it's nice when they feel a bit like friends. I have definitely made real friends at work. Actually I met a spouse at work. So hey, maybe the greatest show was actually in the workplace all along.

Jay Kelly is a good-looking man in a good-looking movie.