Watching George Clooney play a movie star wasn’t exactly a hard sell for me, given I grew up counting him as my favorite actor.

In “Jay Kelly,” he does so much more than play the role he was born to play. He gives depth to the titular character as he undergoes a career crisis brought on by the death of his mentor (played by Jim Broadbent), a director who gave him his big break.

The movie goes back and forth in time, showing Jay’s first couple roles, some more recent memories with the people in his life and his present day with the entourage he surrounds himself with as he goes from movie to movie, squeezing in a little time here and there with his daughters.

Adam Sandler co-stars with Clooney as Ron, Jay’s manager, a demanding role that has pulled him away from his own family again and again. My favorite Sandler role is “Punch-Drunk Love,” decidedly one of his more dramatic or “serious” turns, so I was eager to see him return to that territory, especially after a disappointing return to “Happy Gilmore” earlier this year.

Both Clooney and Sandler are in their finest form in this exploration of the downsides of fame, as we discover how much both of their characters have sacrificed in the name of Jay Kelly.

The other major draw of this film was writer-director Noah Baumbach, who I definitely count as one of my favorite directors.

It was nice to see Clooney, Sandler and some new-to-Baumbach faces play alongside some of Baumbach’s long-time collaborators, including Greta Gerwig, Laura Dern and Josh Hamilton. Baumbach himself even makes a cameo (as a director, of course).

And when I saw Emily Mortimer’s name outside of the cast list as a co-writer with Baumbach, I was not at all surprised, as I also loved her short-lived series on this same subject matter, “Doll & Em.” Both that show and “Jay Kelly” delve into the toxic, co-dependent nature that professional relationships can sometimes take on, especially in show business.

“Jay Kelly” goes beyond the glitz and glamour of superstardom as the titular character goes on a journey of self-discovery, wondering if he made all the right decisions in his life, frequently choosing his career over his family and friends.

On top of all of the great supporting players I listed above, Riley Keough and Grace Edwards are also wonderful as Jay’s daughters, as is Stacy Keach as Jay’s father.

While I came to “Jay Kelly” to see a showbiz story (one of my favorite subject matters), the scenes that have stayed with me the most are the ones between Clooney and Keough. In just a couple sequences, they lay out their whole 35-year history, for better or worse.

The best achievement of “Jay Kelly” is how well it balances an appreciation for cinema as an artform with skepticism and criticism of fame, and Clooney and Sandler really hammer those ideas home with their moving performances.

I highly recommend seeing this moving showbiz story on the big screen.

Rating: 4.5/5