Noah Baumbach’s recent collaborations with Netflix have seen his biggest and most ambitious projects. From Oscar juggernauts like Marriage Story to spectacle adaptations like White Noise, Netflix has poured hundreds of millions of dollars in order to capture Baumbach’s true vision. Jay Kelly is Baumbach’s newest collaboration with the streaming service, once again delivering on a massive spectacle with this globe-trotting drama.

The film follows well-known actor Jay Kelly, played by George Clooney, who begins questioning himself and his life after his youngest daughter is about to leave for Europe to attend college. Destined to spend more time with her before she starts her new life, Jay travels to Europe with his manager Ron, played by Adam Sandler, in order to find his daughter and rediscover his purpose in life.

Jay Kelly is a reflexive film in both the lead character and Baumbach himself. Even though Baumbach isn’t famous in the acting department, both have worked in the film industry for decades and are trying to determine whether their lives turned out the way they wanted. From connections with family and friends to lost love, both are in pursuit of understanding who they are and what they truly want out of life. The self-reflexive angle works wonders for the film emotionally. Baumbach inserting himself in the film could’ve easily came across as self-indulgeant, but because of how complex of a character Jay Kelly is, it is much easier to emapthize with the film. Movies attempting to empathize with celebrities in a nuanced manner is extremely difficult to do, but Emily Mortimer and Baumbach’s dense screenplay allows for a full understanding of the character that makes someone who lives a lavish lifestyle feel grounded in reality.

Most of Baumbach’s films have a low-budget, indie feel, following everyday characters as they travel through a city and learn about life through small-scale interactions. Jay Kelly once again finds a character learning about life through his experiences, but because the protagonist is a major movie star, the film has a global scale. Most of the film takes place in lavish locations across Europe, including fancy hotels and private planes. While this rich lifestyle can sometimes detract from the grounded emotional moments, it works more in the film’s favor in creating what a wealthy man’s life is like.

George Clooney is excellent as the titular Jay Kelly. Much like Baumbach, Clooney draws many parallels between his character and his own life, making for a more authentic portrayal. His interactions with fans during a sequence on a train express his movie-star prowess to a tee, but it’s his final scene at a theater that marks the peak of his acting ability, channeling so much emotion through silence that defines his character development in the most beautiful way. Just on paper, George Clooney was born to play Jay Kelly, but his performance truly defied all expectations.

Jay Kelly has the charisma that makes him universally loved by his fans, but he is mostly an extremely unlikable character. Ditching his family in order to become a movie star, as well as being unable to confront his flaws, Jay Kelly is portrayed as the unlikable, high school jock that everyone wished had peaked in grade school, but instead found even more fame. Because of this, there are moments early on when it is hard to see why the audience would want to follow a character for two hours, but as the film progresses, Jay starts to reveal layers about himself that make him a compelling character overall. Seeing him understand his life through the interactions with his family and companions, as well as looking back on the decisions he’s made, makes for a cathartic experience that justified the theatrical runtime.

Adam Sandler had tons of hype leading up to the premiere of Jay Kelly, with many awards pundits predicting he would win the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role before anyone saw the movie. Sandler’s role as Ron is easily the most empathetic character in the film, but Ron’s complexity was beyond Sandler’s reach. Although he portrays the sad yet lovable manager through beautifully quiet moments, the script asks Sandler to be more than that. A subplot revolving around a past relationship with a co-worker tests Ron’s morals, but Sandler portrays it as just another scenario he encounters in the film. While there were moments where Sandler’s Oscar hype was justified, he didn’t do quite enough to reach even nomination potential.

Nicholas Britell’s is a slight departure from his surreal work on Barry Jenkins’ films like Moonlight and If Beale Street Could Talk, this time with a grand, classical feel, featuring orchestral instruments. The music has its playful moments, especially when the actors bounce off each other, but it also offers plentiful emotional moments that match the characters’ psyches, making for an overall well-rounded score. The cinematography is surprisingly showy for a Baumbach film, with Linus Sandgren perfectly capturing the beauty of being a movie star. The opening sequence, in particular, captures the controlled chaos of a movie set as Sandgren experiments with different color setups and compositions. While the showy cinematography overshadowed character moments at times, it mostly worked well at capturing how Jay Kelly sees his life.

The film blends humanistic drama with surreal sequences in which Jay Kelly looks back on his memories, and while these scenes work well individually, their integration with the rest of the film makes for a slightly messy experience. Baumbach attempts to bridge the naturalistic style of his old films with the spectacle of his recent projects, like White Noise, and the two didn’t blend as well as they could have. Although Jay Kelly is meant to be a larger-than-life figure, and the crux of the movie is bridging the gap between a famous actor and a grounded human being, it felt more like Baumbach was solely trying to be creative rather than creative with a purpose.

Jay Kelly may be a little rough around the edges, but he has more than enough compelling filmmaking from Noah Baumbach to make it worth a watch. With George Clooney’s best performance in years and a touching story about fame, love, and family, Baumbach once again crafts a compelling character study that is bound to evoke emotions in viewers, especially those who work in Hollywood.

Jay Kelly is now playing in select theaters and will be released on Netflix December 5.

Rating: 7/10

Oscar Prospects:

Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Original Score