Boy, have I missed Serious Sandler! Jay Kelly has been on my list since before I saw the first trailer thanks to Adam Sandler starring and Noah Baumbach directing, but that first trailer had me believing that this could be special. Then the reviews started rolling in, and I got nervous. I’m happy to report, though, that I personally had my worries proven wrong and was spellbound by Jay Kelly.

First, I’ve always been a sucker for movies about movies—think Babylon, The Fabelmans, or Singin’ in the Rain—so Jay Kelly was very easy to engage with. I also love movies with clear-cut questions for the audience that the movie aims to answer, and the ones presented in Jay Kelly—“Is there a person in there?” and “Does it mean anything?” were not only interesting, but very well-explored. By the end of the film, the verdict was clear: yes, there’s a person in there, and yes, it can mean something, but only when you give your real self to the people who give everything to you.

Those messages couldn’t have been delivered as crystal-clearly as they were without stellar writing from Noah Baumbach (as always—don’t even ask about my love for The Meyerowitz Stories) and, maybe more importantly, amazing performances from George Clooney and Adam Sandler. I haven’t seen as much of Clooney’s work as I should have by now, but he was a fantastic lead. I don’t think there are stars today as cinematically magnetic as George Clooney; the camera captured him gloriously all film long. The best work on this film, though, was Serious Sandler, who may have just beat his performances from not only The Meyerowitz Stories, but Uncut Gems as well. Sandler’s subtle moves and always great comedic timing should make him a shoe-in for an Oscar nomination, but it’ll be a hard one to win this year, considering the field.

There were so many scenes that oozed that oft-desired “magic”, from the opening scene on set to the tribute at the very end, but even the moments in between—on the train, Clooney vs. Billy Crudup, the list goes on—were as good-looking and impactful as the film’s bookends. By the way, this film had some of the best cinematography and color grading of the year; I’ve always enjoyed Baumbach as a writer, but I don’t think I’ve ever noticed or enjoyed his visual direction as much as I did here. With La La Land levels of color and contrast, how wouldn’t I have noticed?

Given the mixed critical reception of Jay Kelly, two things have become true: 1) I’m glad to have had my skepticism proven foolish, as this film was just as visually captivating as it was narratively captivating, and 2) I feel like I have to go to bat for this film now. It seems like the good people on Letterboxd (not so much those on Rotten Tomatoes) have been unjustly unkind to this one, and I totally think that Jay Kelly deserves a Best Picture nomination. I don’t need it to win—I don’t even need Sandler to win—but it’s crazy to think that a film so memorable in so many facets doesn’t deserve to be immortalized by the Academy. I’m just gobsmacked at this point; call me crazy, but Jay Kelly is one of the best movies of the year.