You may not think Jay Kelly is a brave movie. Another investigation of how great George Clooney is at being a movie star? We get it, we saw the Ocean’s trilogy. Another awards-season ode to how hard it is to be a father of daughters? One Battle After Another and Sentimental Value have that covered. But one aspect of Jay Kelly is so singular that it becomes courageous: It reminds us how deranged George Clooney looks when he runs. Have you seen this man lope around, as he does in Jay Kelly through Italian forests and expansive villas? He’s awful at it. And it’s so endearing! The film blurs the line between fact and fiction by featuring clips from Clooney’s real movies and crediting them to the titular actor, insisting Kelly is one of the last A-listers in an industry shedding Hollywood’s old guard. But one of the most satisfying ways it pays homage to Clooney’s actual career is by letting both the character and the actor run around like an idiot.
There are many good cinematic runners. Tom Cruise, of course, is the most well known, a man whose tight 45-degree elbow and knee angles have powered the multibillion-dollar Mission: Impossible franchise. Teyana Taylor’s big run scene in One Battle After Another became a selling point in the film’s marketing campaign, with an interviewer telling her she had outdone Cruise. Tom Hanks had that easy jog in Forrest Gump; Peter Strauss channeled frustration into his prison laps in The Jericho Mile; Franka Potente balled up her fists and ran for her boyfriend’s life in Run Lola Run. All of these people have a certain amount of believable cardiovascular skill — their lung capacity seems great, and their legs have never even heard of shin splints.
Has Clooney ever seemed that good at sprinting or darting or dashing or scurrying? Not really. Being fit has never been part of his brand; to quote Danny McBride’s Kenny Powers, Clooney has never seemed like a guy who is “trying to be the best at exercising.” That’s exactly why his running scenes have been so enjoyable, though — because of how regular they feel. His legs and arms go wherever. His facial expressions are often pained or bemused. He’s pulling in huge breaths. No part of his body seems in sync with any other part. And it is, frankly, wonderful because it’s a great indication of Clooney’s penchant for physical comedy and his willingness to cut his characters off at the knees to demonstrate their own inherent regularness. In The Descendants; O Brother, Where Art Thou?; those behind-the-scenes clips from Fantastic Mr. Fox; and now, Jay Kelly, Clooney often makes sure his characters aren’t physically superior, or even particularly coordinated.
Director Noah Baumbach and co-writer Emily Mortimer built Jay Kelly around Clooney’s particular charms as an actor, and there are many. The little smile on his face in the poster, the one perfected over his years as Danny Ocean, like he’s got a secret he might never share. That cocked eyebrow he gets when he has been challenged or he’s doing the challenging, as in his tête-à-tête with former friend Timothy (Billy Crudup) and his prolonged arguments with manager Ron (Adam Sandler). The way he rears back when confronted with something he didn’t realize, such as how much he has hurt his daughters by prioritizing his career as a movie star over his role as their father. Those are all recognizable Clooney touches. And so too is his slightly flailing, vaguely desperate, going-for-it run, typified by his hair falling out of place and the sense that this man is fundamentally, for all his money and celebrity, some guy trying to get from one place to another. Clooney knows all about the precision and effort required for the standard “movie-star run” — he mocked it on The Graham Norton Show, complete with a slowed-down caricature of what it looks like. But he’s doing just fine without it. Long may he reign as our goofiest movie star in motion.
