“Can we go again?” asks Jay Kelly (George Clooney), a movie star shooting a scene in which the tough guy he’s playing dies of a gunshot wound on the soundstage reproduction of a rain-slicked alleyway. “I think I can do it better.” These lines from the opening scene of Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly will become the film’s wistful recurring theme. As an A-list celebrity some four decades into a phenomenally successful career, Jay has arrived at an age when many people look back on what they might have done differently in their lives. But “many people” don’t have a private jet and a full staff of housekeepers, chefs, stylists, and personal assistants at their command. Taking stock of your past mistakes is tough when everyone around you is busy protecting you from the consequences of mistakes you

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