Jay Kelly

George Clooney is one of our finest modern actors, and he now has his most meta role in the latest Noah Baumbach film titled Jay Kelly. The script that is co-written by Baumbach and actress Emily Mortimer (who also appears in a small role) is certainly written for Clooney in mind, as there are many similarities that draw the life, including a third act that clearly pays tribute to George Clooney. It might seem like a strange approach for a movie, and it’s not like we have not seen this approach before with films like Being John Malkovich that actually cast Malkovich playing a fictional version of his celebrity lifestyle. Baumbach, the singular filmmaker behind such outstanding films as The Squid and the Whale, Frances Ha, Mistress America, and Marriage Story, is also exploring the celebrity lifestyle. While the film is tamer than anticipated and it doesn’t quite reach the satirical bite that you would expect from Baumbach, there are plenty of terrific scenes throughout where it reaches some genuine poignancy. The film is also released right around Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value, which is also about a father who put his life in show business before his family and examines the complex relationship between family and fame.

Clooney has also held a superb balance of drama and comedy; he has often intertwined emotional pain with longing. A modern Cary Grant, where many detractors dismiss Clooney’s acting range, where he hasn’t played too many transformative performances, though I would argue that Syriana is his most transformative performance and Alexander Payne’s The Descendants is his crowning performance. Clooney here is certainly playing a meta version of himself, and with that there is a great deal at stake that makes the material personal for Clooney and for Baumbach, who is also a father and husband and works in show business. Clooney’s character here is Jay Kelly. He has been famous and consistently in the public eye now for nearly 4 decades. The film opens with a continuous crane shot that pays tribute to Robert Altman’s The Player (which that film opening was a tribute to A Touch of Evil), and it lands on Jay acting in the final scene of a movie where his character dies beside a dog with a lighted bridge in the backdrop. The dog enters the scene too early, but Kelly insists that the cameras keep rolling for the quick retake. Clooney finishes the scene with rich emotion, even though he wants to go ahead and do another, as the director is happy. Jay’s manager, Ron (Adam Sandler), and publicist, Liz (Laura Dern), are also on set, and they are both very grateful to have Jay as their top client.

Courtesy Netflix

Upon finishing the film, Ron persists that he makes the next film immediately, but Jay wants to spend time with his youngest daughter, Daisy (Grace Edwards),, before she leaves for her Europe trip and starts college. They are very disconnected, and Jay is aiming to rebuild it, as Daisy persists that she wants to go on the European trip with her friends. Jay ends up finding out that Peter Schneider (Jim Broadbent), who ended up casting Jay in his breakout role, has passed away. There is guilt as we see Peter is like a father figure, who went to Jay for his blessing to help get his next features greenlit and funded, but Jay turns it down as Peter’s commercial and critical track record has been inconsistent. Even though at the funeral, Schinder’s son discusses how his films have later become cult classics with the Gen Z generation. It’s a very moving speech, and after the funeral service, Jay ends up running into his old friend and acting-school roommate, Tim (Billy Crudup), who is now a child psychologist. Ron is reluctant to let go out in public without his bodyguard, but Jay insists he grab dinner and a drink with Tim. The exchange at the bar between Clooney and Crudup starts off warm and inviting, with Tim doing method acting on various food menus and prices off the menu, but Tim’s repressed emotions are released as he still holds resentment that Jay ended up getting the acting success. This leads to an altercation in the parking lot, with Jay having a black eye and Tim having a broken nose.

The next morning, Ron finds out that Jay is dropping out of the upcoming film, and he instantly wants a flight to Europe. Ron warns that it’s a bad career move, and Jay begins to have an epiphany that he wants to reconnect with Daisy and get on the train that she’s currently traveling to France on, and he begins to realize just how much time has passed. He also has an upcoming tribute ceremony in Tuscany, Italy, and Ron and Liz end up joining him a few days early just before the abrupt rendezvous. Clooney’s co-stars in this film are terrific, and they are all committed to the material, no matter the size of the role. Especially Adam Sandler, who brings a vulnerability to the character as a Hollywood manager who is so committed to Jay that he will drop a family tennis tournament with his wife Lois (Greta Gerwig) and daughter.

Courtesy Netflix

Baumbach is clearly influenced by Fellini’s 8 1/2 and Woody Allen’s Stardust Memories here, which is Allen’s variation of 8 1/2, just as Inferiors was his ode to Cries and Whispers. Like those films, it’s about an artist and crisis. The great Linus Sandgren (La La Land, Babylon, Saltburn) uses some striking compositions and lighting, making it one of Baumbach’s most visually impressive films. One of the most artful and surrealist touches in the film is when Jay is walking through the foggy woods on an Italian mountainside and he makes a phone call to his eldest daughter, Jessica Kelly (Riley Keough). During the phone call, Jay feels very lonely after everyone he wanted at the tribute ends up leaving early. He ends up inviting her over the phone, and she appears in the woods through a stream of Jay’s consciousness, and it’s just one of the many other superbly scripted scenes in the film. In fact, this film is certainly Baumbach at his most episodic. It’s structured like a Fellini film with its narrative. It leaps into flashbacks like a Woody Allen film, flirts with some surrealism, and shows the isolation and disconnect artistry can create.

In many ways, this is an 8 1/2 for George Clooney. It’s a film filled with many terrific moments throughout. The film holds many layers, and in many ways, it would make a fine double bill with Sentimental Value as that too is a film about an artist in crisis aiming to reconnect with his family. It also asks some questions on what defines life. Is it family? Is it experience? In order to gain success in the arts, will there be an opportunity cost where time spent on film set will create detachment from loved ones? This film has a healthy dose of bittersweetness and humor to be found. There is fine acting across the board as well. The moments with Sandler and Clooney are wonderful, as are many other scenes involving Clooney with Keogh. This is an absorbing insider comedy-drama that generates both laughs and tears. I was amused and deeply moved, and there is some deep thought put into the film as well. The interludes in Italy bring a philosophy, especially the moment of Clooney chasing a train patron after he steals an elderly woman’s purse. Though many will think Baumbach’s approach here is gentler than his previous films, he has made an affecting film about life, fatherhood, and stardom, and the third act was quite moving considering just how much of a champion I am of George Clooney and his acting. In other words, you can put Jay Kelly as another win on the impressive list of films by the great Noah Baumbach.

JAY KELLY IS NOW PLAYING IN LIMITED THEATERS. IT WILL BE STREAMING ON NETFLIX ON December 5th, 2025