Geek On Film

Jay Kelly

• Robbie Holmes • Season 5 • Episode 2

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 5:35
SPEAKER_00

Hey there. Welcome to this warner about Jay Kelly. We're going to start off with our friends over at IMDB. The summary of this movie is famous movie actor Jay Kelly embarks on a journey of self-discovery, confronting his past, present with his devoted manager, Ron. Poignant and humor-filled, pitched at the intersection of regrets and glories. This movie was written by Noah Bombach and Emily Mortimer, and it is directed by Noah Bombach. My review over on Letterboxd is three and a half stars with a heart. Overall, a three and a half star experience, a movie that is rock solid throughout because of the sharp and crisp script. And Adam Sandler might finally win the Oscar he should have had years ago. Let's talk a little bit about this movie. So I watch this movie uh at home, uh on my couch on Letterboxd, like almost everybody will. Um, I will tell you that uh I really wanted this film to work. I love anything that Noah Bombach has worked on. I'm a big fan of Emily Mortimer. It's exciting to see the two of them together um working on a film like this. Uh I really want to love a movie about uh the cost of being a star. And I think uh it falls just a little short. I feel like there's some uh tone clashes that don't seem to make to work well for me. So there are times where the movie almost leans towards the farcicle and almost gets to whimsy, yet there's this deep, deep sadness that's in the movie. And it feels like tonal clashing, in my opinion. Um, that doesn't take away from the fact that George Clooney is really great as Jay Kelly. I think there's very few actors that could play this role. And I had heard that Noah Bombach said if George Clooney wasn't available, this movie was going to get shelved. Uh Emily Mortimer writes herself a small role as Candy, uh, who is his makeup artist, I believe, and hair stylist. Um really fun. I think the uh the really amazing aspects of this movie are uh center a lot around Adam Sandler. I think that Adam in this movie uh proves the deep, deep empathy and care that he can bring out of us when he is given the chance to act in a role like this. I was so impressed with this performance as I have been for any time that someone gives Adam Sandler a role that he can sink his teeth into. Um this one is written exceptionally well. He has a complicated feeling uh for his ex-love uh that is played by the amazing Laura Dern. Uh, his wife is played by Greta Gerwig. I mean, he's doing pretty good, let's be real. Uh that's one heck of a movie to have those as two of your love interests. Um, it's a really fun uh and sad uh role, in my opinion. It sort of vacillates in those tonal shifts I was talking about. There are times where this character is like right on the edge of breaking down or breaking down, and there are other times where you see this sort of silly goofiness of what Adam Sandler is. So I don't think uh this character gets exempted from my previous criticism. I just think that Adam Sandler is fantastic. Um, there's so many little pieces of this movie that I think work really well. Um, we probably need to call out the sort of almost like scene stealer aspect of what Billy Crittup does as Timothy. So Timothy is a person that Jay Kelly was in acting classes with, who went on an audition, and Jay Kelly went with him to be support. And then when Tim, Timothy failed the audition, really, uh Jay asked for an opportunity to do the audition and uh then nailed it, uh, took a piece of the the piece of the idea that Timothy had had for making a change, and Jay did it, and Timothy didn't. And Jay has the charisma to carry something like that. In the end, uh Timothy feels like Jay has stolen his life, but Jay uh couldn't steal his life because Timothy wasn't in a position or charismatic enough to to have that life. Um it's I really liked it, but it it falls a little short for me. I don't think this is a uh best picture nominee, but I do think we'll see a few nominations coming out of this. I think Noah Bomback might get a might get a nomination uh for screenplay, but I think we may see Adam Sandler uh and a few of the below-the-line categories. I'd be surprised if we see much more than that. Um, this movie's worth watching. Uh again, three and a half stars with a heart is a pretty good review. Um, you should give it a chance. Fire it up. It's over on Netflix. Um, thank you for sticking in here. Thank you for watching. Uh I look forward to talking to you again soon. Um, thank you much. Bye bye.

Head Shot

Robbie Holmes

Host