Jay Kelly: George Clooney stars in this recent release on Netflix. Directed and produced by Noah Baumbach, it also stars a very good ensemble cast including Adam Sandler, Billy Crudup, Emily Mortimer, Laura Dern and Stacy Keach. Clooney is playing a successful Hollywood actor (so basically himself) who is confronted about his past actions in order to get to his position. He has an entourage which includes Sandler (acting as his agent/manager) and Dern (playing his publicist). He also a couple of daughters who are almost launched, as the younger is heading off to Europe for a trip with her friends. Clooney is between movies, but about to start a new one when he thinks about trying to spend some more time with that daughter.
One of the first interactions Jay Kelly has is with a guy he knew when he was in acting achool and a starving actor looking for his big break. Played by Billy Crudup, Timothy approaches Jay and wants to chat, and Jay accepts the invitation for a drink and they end up at a bar. What starts out pleasant then becomes a little more prickly when Timothy speaks about a casting call that he had, for which he invited Jay to read with him, for which Jay got the opportunity. The scene is actually shown with the younger men. Life is filled with grey, and nothing is ever so cut and dried with a bad person and a good person. Instead a creative moment by Jay allows him to be further interviewed by the producers of the show. This launched Jay, Timothy faded away and needed to have a career change.
Other interactions take place while Jay heads out to find his daughter. The entourage of course comes along, and they drop everything and their own personal plans in order to do what Jay wants. They grumble under their breath, including Dern who speaks condescendingly about her boss. There is a pattern this year in film, where a successful father (in the arts notably) are having an opportunity to review their lives, or express themselves to those that they love through their art. We see this with William Shakespeare in Hamnet, also famous director with his daughters in Sentimental Value, and then this effort. Jay is shown as making sacrifices in order to reach the level of success where he stands. Powerful and successful people rarely don’t have such choices – and that often family life suffers with time spent with children as opposed to working on pieces of art. Jay by heading to Europe rearranges his schedule to attend a retrospective career tribute award, but he ends up there without family, without friends save for those who he pays to be there. As he says to Sandler “friends don’t take 15% of the earnings of the other friend”. It is a good performance. It is telling that Jay sees a number of occasions that he was not a trusted and reliable friend. He was always able to focus on his own interests which leads to a lonely outcome. There is a considerable, substantive, memorable body of work that he has done with his movies but for him it feels hollow. A fellow actor, the replacement actor for when Jay initially refused to attend the tribute, shows up with his wife, kids, parents for his big day. In addition to friendships, he is also shown romantic relationships. He had been married but he is solo, and he also had other women in his life previously from a role in a film. This may or may not have been a suitable partner for him. All this to say that this is worth checking out and your time. It is sad in a way, to have regrets, but it also human. However much someone may say that they would have made different choices in their life, it would seem at the time that these choices were made consciously. Would Jay Kelly feel that the life of his former friend Timothy would be satisfying for him? That question I will leave to the viewer to decide.
aka Charlie Sheen: This documentary is on Netflix. The subject matter is the former Hollywood superstar Charlie Sheen reflecting back on his life now at the age of 60yo. This high school drop out, entered acting and at the tender age of 21 years made it HUGE in the Oliver Stone Best Picture Platoon. Then in 1987 he starred in Wall Street, with his co-star Dad. He was one of the most sought after stars at the time, and all that it entails. His Dad, Martin Sheen, was also a star in such movies as Apocalypse Now, and also TV series The West Wing. Within his friends group, it included Sean Penn, Christopher Penn, his brother Emilio Estevez and Nicholas Cage. This was a classic story of too much, too soon, for the entitled Hollywood child. He just couldn’t handle it.
I was hesitant to watch this because I really didn’t feel the need to give attention to someone who has focused his efforts on tearing down his own life and self-destructing. Sure fame and money sounds glamourous and fun, and for those with a sense of control and moderation I expect that it can be. But watch other recent movie on Netflix Jay Kelly and you see what the entourage and the money brings. One is surrounded by “Yes People” who fascilitate your every whim, right or wrong. I learned a few things about Sheen in this, like he was a teenage Dad. He had a child just after high school. I learned about that close group of friends who have all been successful and that both Sean Penn and Nicolas Cage are not good influences. They have all done seemingly a lot of drugs. Sheen has just done more, and has the constitution to be able to survive it. Certainly he is talented, as one wonders how he can perform in Two And a Half Men from 2003 until 2011 (8 years) being a user of all the drugs and alcohol that he used. I did not watch the show, but I knew the premise. I was also surprised to see two ex-wives (Denise Richards and Brooke Mueller) on camera talking about their experiences in episode 2. Mueller I later learned is suing Charlie for over $15M in back child support which will perhaps bankrupt him. His Dad did not appear nor brother Emilio. But I do wonder what Charlie would have been capable of doing if it had avoided the drugs altogether. In the end, he seems to have seen the error of his way, although the smirk on his face from time to time belies that, and he wants to move forward in his life. Not sure who will take a chance on him at this point, but he has many lives, and he might use this to try and change his image and get back into the business. Only time will tell if this is the case.
Shame: I had an online discussion with a topic of Under-rated Movies, and someone listed the 2011 film Shame with Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan. I am a Michael Fassbender fan, as I think that he is an excellent actor who embodies the roles that he takes on. He is very versatile and doesn’t always do mainstream Hollywood projects. This would fall under this category. Fassbender plays Brandon Sullivan a successful thirty-something single New Yorker. He lives on his own with a good job. He also is a sex addict. It controls his life, in all aspects of it. In his relationships he is avoidant of true intimacy, and would rather pay for anonymous sex with a sex worker than spend quality time with a person of interest for him.
He also avoids his younger sister (Mulligan playing Sissy) who has been trying to reach him but to no avail and just ends up arriving unannounced at an inopportune time for Brandon. She is talented, interesting but also troubled, seemingly incapable of any type of long lasting relationship. They clash, as Brandon can be very belittling to her, tearing her down as she is cramping his lifestyle. Things happen which show time and again just how far Brandon has come with his addiction, and how he rebuffs quickly someone who can be a quality romantic match for him. His longest relationship is fourth months, and it is very telling about him. Both he and his sister suffer and comfort one another in their difficulties.
For young single men, this movie can also be a masterclass in being attractive to the opposite sex. Brandon, his boss and others on their team are at a local bar for after work drinks. His (married) boss identifies a woman at the bar with some female friends that he is attracted to. He makes it very clear to the attractive woman how he feels about her, laying it on thick in front of her female friends. Brandon walks by and makes light conversation, but shows that he is perceptive in knowing the attractive woman’s eye colour (which the boss failed to do). The woman dances with the Boss, at the Boss’ insistence, but is watching Brandon at the bar. In the end, it is Brandon who has a casual encounter with her outside the bar under a bridge. Check mate. I will also say that I wonder aloud how many male Hollywood stars would be going full monty in a movie with no body double. Needless to say Mr Fassbender obviously has no reason to be concerned. This movie does have plenty of nudity and sexual situations.
This was a very good movie. I am glad that it was brought to my attention, and I am not sure how it passed my radar back in the day. It is a very good cast, quality acting, a good story and thought provoking. It shows a very dark side of this obsession and its impact on the person who is consumed by it. When Brandon comes to a realization about his life and cleans up his apartment, you can see by the number of items thrown out that he has a real problem. This was definitely worth my time. Seek it out.
Mondays With Robbie 