After the critical stumble of “White Noise,” Noah Baumbach returns with a much different film. Vanity Fair has our first look images at “Jay Kelly,” which will have its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival.
The film, with its A-list cast and stylized narrative, seems to be Baumbach’s attempt to reaffirm his place in the Hollywood auteur club, albeit via a story that has George Clooney and Adam Sandler at its forefront.
Baumbach wrote the screenplay with actress Emily Mortimer, with a towering ensemble that includes Clooney, Sandler, Laura Dern, Riley Keough, Greta Gerwig, Patrick Wilson, Jim Broadbent. The central story, an aging star’s reckoning with relevance, family, and artistic identity, risks being more meta than first imagined. You can practically feel the Oscar campaign kickstarting here, especially with Sandler reportedly tapping into his “Uncut Gems”-era intensity and Clooney looking himself in the mirror.
Sandler plays a codependent manager to Clooney’s faltering icon. It’s described as a road movie rooted in generational guilt and industry disillusionment. After co-writing “Barbie,” arguably the biggest film of his career (albeit via Gerwig’s lens), Baumbach’s back, with Netflix money, in what seems to be a much more commercial film.
Reading the Vanity Fair interview, Baumbach wants us to believe he’s fallen back in love with cinema after the $150M-costing “White Noise” debacle left him unsure of his place, bit he credits his work with Gerwig on “Barbie” as the catalyst for reinvigorating his inner artist.
Baumbach is the writer-director behind indie classics “The Squid and the Whale” and “Frances Ha.” His “Marriage Story” (2019) also earned multiple Oscar noms. Sandler previously teamed up with the filmmaker on “The Meyerowitz Stories.” Clooney has never worked with either of them.
“Jay Kelly” is set to hit theaters on November 14, with its streaming debut scheduled for December 5. It’s getting the two-week Netflix treatment.
