Lars Eidinger | Through the Shattered Lens

Jay Kelly features George Clooney at both his best and his worst.

Clooney plays the film’s title character, an actor who has just hit 60 and who is having an existential crisis as he realizes everything that he’s lost as a result of being rich and famous. Clooney’s best moments are when he plays Jay as being essentially a prick, a guy who might be well-meaning but who lacks the self-awareness necessary to understand just how condescending and fake he tends to come across to the people who know him. This is the Jay who insists on having a drink with Tim (Billy Crudup), a former actor who lost a key role to Jay and who has never forgiven him for it. (It starts out as a friendly drink but it eventually becomes a fight after Tim reveals that he hates Jay and Jay responds by being smug.) This is the Jay who has alienated both of his daughters (Riley Keough and Grace Edwards) and who doesn’t seem to understand that the rest of the world doesn’t travel with an entourage.

Jay is gloriously unaware in those scenes and they give Clooney a chance to show that he’s still capable of giving a sharp comedic performance. Watching him in those scenes, I was reminded of the gloriously dumb characters that he played for the Coen Brothers, in both Burn After Reading and Hail, Caesar. For that matter, I was also reminded of his burned-out hatchet man from Up In the Air, who was not a dumb character but still was someone who, like Jay Kelly, always seemed to be performing.

Unfortunately, as the film progresses, Jay himself starts to wander into flashbacks of himself as a young actor and, even worse, he starts to talk to himself about everything that he’s lost due to his fame and suddenly, he transforms into the insufferably smug Clooney who spent the earlier part of this year in greasepaint, lecturing us all about Edward R. Murrow. The flashbacks to Jay Kelly’s past often feel like stand-ins for flashbacks to George Clooney’s past (and it’s probably not a coincidence that both Kelly and Clooney are from Kentucky) but they don’t really add up to much. Jay Kelly is a character who becomes less compelling the more that one learns about him.

The characters around Jay Kelly are far more interesting than Jay himself, though I have my doubts whether that was intentional on the part of director Noah Baumbach. (An overly long and indulgent sequence on a train would seem to suggest that Jay Kelly was envisioned as being a more fascinating character than he turned out to be.) Just as he did in Baumbach’s The Meyerowitz Stories, Adam Sandler gives the film its heart, playing the role of Jay’s loyal but unappreciated manager. Sandler and Laura Dern have a few showy scenes together but Sandler’s best moments come opposite Patrick Wilson as a client who feels that he’s being neglected in favor of Jay Kelly. (For that matter, Wilson is so good in those scenes that I almost wish he had switched roles with Clooney.) One might not expect the star of Jack and Jill and That’s My Boy to emerge as one of Hollywood’s best sad-eyed character actors but that’s what has happened in the case of Adam Sandler.

With all that in mind, I have to admit that I enjoyed Jay Kelly more than I thought I would. Some of that has to do with expectations. Jay Kelly is currently getting so roasted on social media that I was expecting the film to be a self-indulgent disaster. While the film is definitely self-indulgent and about 30 minutes too long, it’s not a disaster. When Clooney’s performance works, it really works. (Unfortunately, the inverse is also true.) Adam Sandler, Billy Crudup, Riley Keough, and Stacy Keach all give performances that elevate the occasionally shallow script. Cinematographer Linus Sandgren captures some beautiful shots, especially towards the end of the film. Visually, Jay Kelly is a marked improvement on the bland imagery of Marriage Story. Like its title character, Jay Kelly is imperfect and occasionally annoying but it does hold your attention.

As for the film’s Oscar chances, the reviews are mixed but it’s a film about how tough it is to be an actor and one should not forget that the Actor’s Branch is the biggest branch of the Academy and the majority of the voters are people who are probably going to watch Jay Kelly and say, at the very least, “Hey, I know that guy!” (Few will admit, “I am that guy,” but that will still definitely be a factor in how they react to the film.) Regardless of how social media feels about the film, I imagine Jay Kelly will be remembered when the nominations are announced.

It’s a little bit disheartening, to be honest, to see the lack of attention that has been given to Clouds of Sils Maria. Kristen Stewart has picked up a lot of awards for her supporting performance and she might even get an Oscar nomination on Thursday but otherwise, the film has been ignored and that’s a shame. Last year, it was one of the best films to be released here in the States.

Of course, it’s difficult to talk about Clouds of Sils Maria without also talking about Maps To The Stars. After all, both films premiered at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival and both of them deal with an aging actress struggling to remain relevant in an industry that prizes youth above all else. The main difference between the two is that Clouds of Sils Maria is a great movie while Maps To The Stars is a pretentious mess. And yet, when initially released, Maps To The Stars was the more critically acclaimed of the two films.

Why was that?

I imagine it has something to do with the fact that Clouds of Sils Maria demands a certain amount of intelligence on the part of the audience. Whereas there’s neither a subtle moment nor an unexpected detail to be found in Maps To The Stars, Clouds of Sils Maria rewards repeat viewing. Clouds of Sils Maria invites the audience to ponder its mysteries and it does so without spelling anything out. Clouds of Sils Maria is all about nuance and, as such, it’s not exactly the ideal film for critics who make their living off of clickbait.

As for what the film is about, it tells the story of Maria Enders (Juliette Binoche), a world-famous stage and screen actress. 20 years ago, Maria became a star when she appeared in both the theatrical and the film versions of Maloja Snake. Maria played the role of Sigrid, a callous young woman who seduces a middle-aged, bourgeois woman named Helena. When Sigrid eventually abandons Helena, the older woman is driven to suicide. Though she is now closer in age to Helena, Maria continues to think of herself as being Sigrid.

When the writer of Maloja Snake dies, Maria is offered a chance to appear in a new stage production. However, this time, she will be playing Helena and a young American actress named J0-Ann Ellis (Chloe Grace Moretz) will play Sigrid. (Jo-Ann is better known for her scandalous private life than her acting. Moretz appears to have a lot of fun playing the Lindsay Lohanesque Jo-Ann.) At first, Maria does not want to play Helena. She dismisses the role as being boring and says that she cannot see herself playing such a “normal” character. (As well, Maria is haunted by the memory of the death of the actress who originally played Helena opposite Mara’s Sigrid.) Even after Maria is finally convinced to take on the role, she continues to insist that she’s not right for it. As quickly becomes apparent, it’s not so much the role that upsets Maria but what the role represents. By playing Helena, Maria will be admitting that she is no longer the invulnerable Sigrid.

In order to rehearse, Maria retreats to a remote cabin in the Alps. Accompanying her is Valentine (Kristen Stewart), her assistant. At first, it seems that Val and Maria have an almost sisterly relationship but it quickly becomes obvious that the out-of-touch Maria is largely dependent on Val for any information about the outside world. (Maria has to be constantly reminded that she can google any information she needs.) Despite needing her, Maria occasionally talks down to Val (especially after learning that Val thinks Jo-Ann is a good actress and that Val likes a sci-fi film that Jo-Ann has appeared in) and Val occasionally seems to be annoyed with Maria’s neediness.

In the Alps, Maria continues to try to learn Helena’s role and, as the weeks pass, her line readings go from awkward to natural. Reading opposite her, in the role of Sigrid, is Val and, often times, it’s difficult to distinguish between the play and reality. How much of Val and Maria’s relationship is real and how much of it is just a rehearsal?

Clouds of Sils Maria is a visually stunning film, one of that is fully mystery and beautiful images. Even more importantly, it’s a film that features three strong roles for three talented actresses, all of whom do some of their best work. Clouds of Sils Maria did not get the attention that it deserved when it was first released but it’s never too late to discover a good movie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5L-9rcEhGm4