I’m Trevor with the Sasquatch Movie Minute with a 25er review, looking at JAY KELLY, directed by Noah Baumbach, starring George Clooney and Adam Sandler. Famous movie star Jay Kelly travels to Italy on a trip of self-discovery.

3 out of 5

A 2-star movie with a 5-star ending. Baumbach does difficult, emotionally complex films, and this one is no different. He plumbs deep into how age and ego can taint friendship and memory. It is messy, characters are given life-altering monologues when we have only the barest sketch of who they are. Next to the deeply drawn characters are ones that play as cheap stereotypes which is a jarring juxtaposition. I often felt like I was missing a lot of subtextual detail. But then I would see how a later scene circled around to mirror an earlier one and was awestruck at that genius level of writing.

Best Scene. Whoa, that ending. It takes the tangled knot of the story and heaves it at a big cathartic moment and damn if it still works. Those last lines, ‘Can I go again,’ had me in tears; such a raw nerve connection to what it means to age, the heavy stone of regret, and how to say goodbye to wasted years. It hit very close to home. That being said, there was a huge error in the finale about the ages of certain characters and it really frustrated me to have that big a fail in a movie of this caliber.

Best Performance. It didn’t feel like Clooney dug as deep as he needed to here. I’ll go with Adam Sandler; he really moved me in an early scene with Laura Dern. But he also really annoyed me too, there should never be a working relationship where one person nicknames the other ‘puppy.’ Also, was Isla Fisher really cast in a nothing 5-second role??

This is a prickly movie that defies an easy watch; but it still holds tremendous power.