FILM
JAY KELLY
CLOONEY GETS META ON MOVIE STARDOM
Here: George Clooney slums it on public transport.
Greta Gerwig and Adam Sandler.
★★★
OUT NOVEMBER 14 / CERT TBC / 132 MINS
DIRECTOR Noah Baumbach
CAST George Clooney, Adam Sandler, Laura Dern, Patrick Wilson
PLOT An ageing movie star (Clooney) embarks on an impromptu journey across Europe in search of who he really is.
IN THE MOST revealing scene in Jay Kelly, the handsome, salt-and-pepper-haired titular movie star (George Clooney) stands in the cramped toilet of a moving train, staring into a mirror. He states the names of actors like Cary Grant and Clark Gable aloud before reciting his own name with a different intonation each time, as if trying to unearth a performance as himself with every repetition. It relates directly to the film’s opening with a quote by Sylvia Plath: “It’s a hell of a responsibility to be yourself. It’s much easier to be somebody else, or nobody at all.”