I saw a pretty good new movie last night, and I didn’t even have to leave my bed and heating pad to go out or worry about having enough in my bank account to afford dinner. My back, stomach and net worth are especially appreciative.
The movie was JAY KELLY, a decidely mature and adult-appeal alternative to the slew of kid-friendly IP that’s dominating the theatres this month, and considering it’s Netflix’s latest attempt at an original film it’s also welcome counterprogramming to the onslaught of sappy holiday fare that so many networks and platforms seem determined to shove down our throats. The verdicts to date are markedly favorable, with ROTTEN TOMATOES’ weighing in at this writing with a 76% Tomatometer score among critics and, more importantly, a better-than-average 88% Popcornmeter among the masses. Several notable critics are even gushier–for example, USA TODAY’s Brian Truitt:
“Jay Kelly” might be the closest thing we ever get to “George Clooney: The Movie.” Director Noah Baumbach’s bittersweet dramedy (★★★½ out of four()… is another of his signature tales tackling human relationships, regrets and foibles. This one just happens to feature Clooney playing the most famous movie star in the world in the twilight of his career. (A real stretch, right?)
But this Jay Kelly fellow realizes, perhaps too late, that he’s set aside those closest to him for the sake of his work. It’s a very meta Hollywood version of “A Christmas Carol,” with Clooney brandishing both his signature grin and palpable gravitas as a man shown the consequences of his existence not via ghosts but his own conscience.
ROGEREBERT.com’s Brian Tallerico weighed in yesterday with a bit more nuance and detail but essentially a similar vedict:
Noah Baumbach’s “Jay Kelly” is a study of a man in the middle of a personality crisis who worries that he doesn’t have one, only the personalities which fictional characters and the glory of celebrity have granted him. It’s a deeply meta film, a movie that uses as its foundation what we know of its star, George Clooney, one of the few leading men who can coexist in the same frame with images of legends like Paul Newman and Marcello Mastroianni and we don’t immediately reject the idea…For a story of a guy who’s willing to get messy for the first time in years, it’s an overly clean piece of screenwriting, one that too often lets its A-list star play ideas instead of a character. But there’s enough to like here to forgive a film whose ambition exceeds its reach, both in some of those ideas and a flawless supporting cast, especially another fantastic turn from Adam Sandler.
It’s most def poetic timing that Clooney’s latest tour de force comes via a Netflix that years ago plucked Sandler out of the toil and trouble of traditional theatricals into a lucrative overall deal that has seen his more sophomoric executions rake in billions of viewing minutes and creating a de facto catalogue for the once-upstart streamer. And Sandler’s elevated performance is being lauded on the very same day that the news cycle was otherwise flooded with the reaction–no, read that overreaction–to yesterday’s breaking news that Sandler’s studio was swallowing Clooney’s–save for the grizzle and fat of largely zombie cable networks being left at the curb like I tend to leave unwanted and undigestible hot sauce that less competent fast food order-takers sometimes throw into my bag.
I for one was happy to see Clooney on Netflix as a performer; it’s not as if he’s a complete stranger to streaming. I worked with his Smokehouse Pictures team during the time they had wanderlust from WB and were seduced by Sony, developing unsold projects for Hulu and the critically acclaimed but otherwise forgotten ON BECOMING A GOD IN CENTRAL FLORIDA, originally commissioned by YouTube Red (proof positive even the best and biggest occasionally screw up) but eventually being given a shot by Showtime after a tremendous amount of intense and research-heavy lobbying. When he’d grace the lot and interject himself into lunchtime basketball games on our parking structure’s roof he proved to be as menschy and engaging with my colleagues as he had been for years with those I knew at the Burbank lot. It was painful when I had to feed his partners discouraging numbers; they would inevitably lament about how much simpler it would have been had the show not had to be subject to the scrutiny of Nielsen numbers.
Well, Mr. Clooney et al, you finally got your wish. Now you’re in bed with a company that refuses to release domestic box office for its theatrical toe-dips largely to allow for Oscar nominations, self-limiting their window to a mere 17 days and then determine a film’s success by the numbers of views it achieves using a consistently pivoting self-derived definition. A formula that’s worked darn well for Sandler, I might add.
In the wake of this positive experience I then subjected myself to a five-alarm fire that the whiny elitists from THE ANKLER put out as an emergency video podcast that they claimed captured the mood of “the town” in the wake of WBD deciding to at least attempt to head to the altar with Netflix. It amplified and articulated the dozens of other articles and press releases from practically every union and gave Elizabeth Warren a fresh subject to offer her esteemed opinions on media and its decisions. She’s none too happy with this one, and even though he was far too busy sleep-walking his way into accepting yet another kiss-ass award given his declared rooting interest for the company Netflix jilted I suspect we’re gonna hear something surprisingly similar from the farter-in-chief before long.
THE entire ANKLER staff–well, at least four of them–went all out in this effort. As the clickbait to their non paywall-protected effort shrieked:
Elaine Low, Natalie Jarvey, Sean McNulty and Lesley (Goldberg) all gathered Friday morning to break down the repercussions of potentially the most significant piece of show business news this decade. Top-line concerns include:
- The thousands of lost jobs that will worsen unemployment in the industry — already at Depression-era levels
- Whether movie theaters can survive the “consumer-friendly” windows Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos referenced in a Friday call with investors
- Netflix’s potential new arsenal: all-star showrunners (J.J. Abrams, Greg Berlanti and Chuck Lorre, to name a few) and a gaming vertical at last
- Downstream effects on linear syndication
- The future of the peerless brand HBO.
“Everybody is just shell-shocked,” Elaine said of the calls and texts she fielded all day. “The main reaction that I’ve been getting is that people are scared. People are nervous.” And indeed, the Netflix investors call didn’t help matters, with Sarandos evading the questions that matter most to Hollywood.
Their veteran colleague and cloud-yeller Richard Rushfeld weighed in with his own cry for help; a piece with the insultingly incendiary headline ‘It Can Be Stopped’: Fighting Back Against the ‘Bad Faith’ Netflix-Warner Bros. Deal. Even by the standards of a typical Rushfeld rant this was WAR OF THE WORLDS-level consternation. No doubt he copied Senator Pocahontas on his distro list.
I’m sure this attempt at reassurance that Netflix’ bots sent to our inboxes early morning didn’t calm anyone’s nerves.
To everyone who’s determined to freak out I have two pearls of wisdom to unapolgetically offer up:
One: Get a grip. It’s not like this hasn’t happened before; ask anyone who worked at what was once 20th Century FOX. We do move on with our lives no matter how compromised they may be. And in a commercial economy where tech dominates it’s only gonna happen more often down the road. I remind people that when they see me at my current position and the first thing out of their mouths was WTF happened to YOU? The same thing that’s happened to hundreds of others in recent years, I attempt to remind them. Only sometimes do some of them cut me some slack.
Two: You wanna know how you can still continue your career and exaggerated lifestyle? Produce something as good as JAY KELLY. Don’t expect a bloated market to support your more mediocre efforts.
Lacking that, you can always produce a video podcast. From what we’ve seen above, it’s obvious any schmuck can.
Until next time…
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