If one has seen the HBO series Entourage (2004), one won't be too surprised with the bulk of what's depicted here. The difference is that the HBO series focused on a movie star and his manager, both of whom in their mid to late 20's or 30's, as they attempted to build a career. This film, directed and co-written by Noah Baumbach, instead focuses on a movie star and his manager, both in their 50's and 60's. Instead of looking forward and examining what it takes to succeed and achieve fame, it's about looking backward and examining if what it took to succeed and achieve fame was worth it and what the cost or toll was. According to Baumbach and co-writer, Emily Mortimer, that cost or toll is time away from one's children.
The film doesn't truly examine the relationships with the movie star's children, as much as it could have or should have. We're led to believe that George Clooney (Good Night, And Good Luck and Ocean's Eleven) who plays the titular character whose name has the same syllables and is alliterative to George Clooney is an absentee father. Jay Kelly has a synonymous film career to George Clooney but is considered to be a person who basically refuses to be in his children's lives. Jay has two adult daughters. His eldest in fact accuses him of abandoning her. Yet, that's not exactly clarified. There comes a point that he says he put his job over his child. Movie stars aren't working 365 days a year. There's often months that go by where a movie star is on hiatus. Even still, a lot of his work is probably done in Los Angeles, on sound stages, probably not always requiring he travel for work. Assuming his daughters lived with him, I'm not sure what his time availability was to his kids. Regardless, if that's how his daughter feels, then that's how she feels. Jay does or says nothing to contradict or argue against this perception, so it must be assumed to be true, but having a better understanding of how he parented them and what his schedule was like during their childhood would've been more clarifying. Otherwise, we're left to assume he's a bad dad who cares more about his professional dream than his own daughters.
Adam Sandler (Uncut Gems and Punch-Drunk Love) co-stars as Ron Sukenick, the manager of Jay Kelly who has worked with Jay for decades. Ron is responsible with helping Jay to build and develop his career, which includes picking film projects and arranging for accolades. Ron sees himself as a friend to Jay, but others don't see the two of them as being that close. The dynamic of the film is that push-and-pull of whether or not their friendship is real or if it's just a professional, and strictly business relationship. Ron has to sacrifice time with his family in order to care for and manage Jay and it's a question if Ron's sacrifices are worth it.
Sandler's arc is probably the best part of the film. His struggle seems more relatable. He has to deal with a demanding boss. His attempts to juggle work and personal life are a significant focus. His character though doesn't ever truly get loud or over-the-top, which was a staple of Sandler's early career. Recently, he's mellowed out. Under directors like Baumbach, those choices are probably tamped down. However, Sandler's character being loud might have helped. Some back-and-forth between Jay and Ron to dig into their relationships might have helped.
Riley Keough (Logan Lucky and Mad Max: Fury Road) plays Jessica Kelly or just Jesse, the aforementioned, eldest daughter of Jay. She gets an interesting segment of the film where Jay goes to visit her. It felt like not enough though. Keough is great in her time on screen, but it ultimately felt vague about the depths of Jessica's relationship with Jay or what the details specifically were. Was he truly an absentee father that "abandoned" her? Or, is that just her perception?
There is another aspect to the film, concerning how Jay got his big break. Billy Crudup (Spotlight and Almost Famous) plays Tim Galligan, a former friend and fellow actor. Both Tim and Jay went to audition for a famous director. Jay wasn't going to audition. He was simply there to support Tim. Yet, Jay asks to read for that director after Tim has a seemingly bad audition. Jay instead has a great one, which leads to Jay getting cast in that particular film. This happened 35 years ago and when the two men run into each other in the present, Tim makes Jay feel guilty about how their careers went into two different directions.
Despite being talented, Tim never had much of an acting career and certainly never became famous. All we see though is that he had one bad audition. Unfortunately, the film doesn't dig into Tim's life any further than that. Did that one bad audition stop him from ever auditioning again? If he continued auditioning, was he simply unlucky and not get cast for anything? Obviously, there are tons of talented actors who don't get cast and don't achieve fame. If Jay wasn't cast 35 years ago, it would've been someone else who took Tim's so-called role. It's never clarified if it was Jay's ambition or Tim's lack thereof with which Tim is upset.
Rated R for language.
Running Time: 2 hrs. and 13 mins.
Available on Netflix.