• Director: Noah Baumbach
• Screenplay: Noah Baumbach, Emily Mortimer
• Cast: George Clooney, Adam Sandler, Laura Dern, Billy Crudup
• Cinematography: Linus Sandgren
• Editing: Valerio Bonelli, Rachel Durance
• Score: Nicholas Britell
• Genre: Comedy-drama
• Runtime: 132 minutes

Jay Kelly. A quick three syllable name, repeated often enough that you almost forget he’s a man, not a concept. George Clooney stars as the titular actor, at the apex of a decades-long career as a leading man. At the funeral of the director who gave him his big break, everyone assumes he’s doing fine, like being rich and famous cancels out any emotions someone has. In reality, he’s a shell of a human being with no authentic identity of his own.

He’s divorced, estranged from one daughter and trying to salvage the relationship he has with his younger daughter. She’s going travelling across Europe, leaving him alone with no genuine friends. He decides to track her journey by using her friend’s credit card data, even if it means having to rough it on a train full of normal people. Unfamous people.

They’re surprised to see him in such an ordinary scenario. And of course, treat him like a god among men. That’s the thing about fame though, only those at the eye of the storm know just how destructive a force it is. Here’s Jay Kelly, with a wrecked domestic life, celebrating with complete strangers in a train carriage. They are outsiders, with no knowledge of who he is as a living, breathing person. They’re praising a name; he’s a visual representation of heroism as if his roles onscreen have bled out into the real world.

It takes a small army to construct the image of the perfect film star – his publicist, his stylist, his assistant, reinforcing the idea that he’s a project to work on. With him every step of the way is his manager Ron (Adam Sandler), too loyal to resign even with his own family situation reaching breaking point, getting too close to the squall of celebrity.

Clooney conveys Baumbach’s ideas of fame successfully. He’s never been my favourite ever actor but he’s the only one that could fill this role. He is one of the last great movie stars. His polished charm harks back to the glamour of the Golden Age of Hollywood. Jay Kelly, in a moment of self doubt, rattles off a list of classic actors – Gary Cooper, Cary Grant, Clark Gable – inserting his own name in there, as if to assure himself of his place amongst the greats. George Clooney easily belongs in that list. His peers in the field are bankable yet he has that sense of maturity about him. Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise and Leonardo DiCaprio are bona fide icons but they’re all too boyish, clinging onto some sort of youth when they’re over half a century old.

There’s a scene that sees Jay Kelly running through a forest dressed in a white suit reminiscent of a unicorn – magical, mystical, legendary.

My rating: 8 / 10