George Clooney is quietly touching in a deeply meta role

ONE MINUTE A MAN IS A HOT YOUNG MOVIE star; the next, he’s a silver fox.

- BY STEPHANIE ZACHAREK

Sandler and Clooney inhabit a friendship built on business

Who knows where the time goes? There are lots of movies about aging actresses—Sunset Boulevard and All About Eve are prime examples—but we're supposed to assume that growing older doesn’t faze men as much. It’s easier for a man to ease into a state of sexy gravitas. That’s true of both George Clooney and the George Clooney—like character he plays in Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly, which hits select theaters Nov. 14 before streaming on Netflix Dec. 5. You couldn’t find a more fitting performer for this successful actor who, after an encounter with an old friend that begins with reminiscing and ends in a fistfight, reconsiders his entire life. The idea gives Clooney lots to work with: he gets to razzle-dazzle one minute and brood over his mistakes the next. Clooney can do it all.

Yet there’s something strangely inert about Jay Kelly. Baumbach co-wrote the script with Emily Mortimer, who also shows up in a few brief scenes. While a handful of moments are beautifully written, acted, and directed,