Jay Kelly

This film stretches a premise that could barely sustain a short into a full-length feature, and the padding shows. The characters exist in isolation from one another, creating zero chemistry or meaningful interaction that might draw viewers in.

The casting defaults to the tired formula of white male protagonists, while Europe is rendered through embarrassingly outdated stereotypes that feel decades out of touch. The performances across the board are wooden and unconvincing, suggesting either poor direction or miscast roles-likely both.

In two decades of watching films, this stands out as the most unnecessary addition to cinema I've encountered. Skip it.

I happen to catch this at the NYFF. This is the type of film we need now. It focuses on our humanity, our relationships, our joys and regrets. The movie captures accurately the working relationships of a movie star and his supporting entourage. And demonstrates the sacrifices that are sometimes necessary to achieve such success. The performances were wonderful. Adam Sandler has really come along way. He just gets better and better as a dramatic actor. His performance was heartbreaking and hopefully he'll receive many deserving accolades for it. Clooney, well, he never disappoints but this is the most vulnerable role I've ever seen him tackle and he did it superbly. I was very moved and hope everyone sees this film.

I saw this film at the AFI Film Festival in Hollywood. It is a pleasant enough comedy-drama which follows George Clooney as a somewhat nastier version of himself. Adam Sandler as his manager, Laura Dern as his publicist, and Riley Keogh as Clooney eldest daughter provide support and act as Clooney's character's "keepers". The film is light on substance - sort of like the meringue on a lemon pie. Easily digestible but also easily forgettable too - worth a look but not worth going out of your way for it.

I've really found myself drawn towards character driven, comedy-dramas over the last few years and because that Jay Kelly seemed like it was tailor made for me. I was totally prepared for this movie to make me laugh and to make me cry and even if it didn't reach the heights I wanted it to it's still very interesting as a character study with a lead character I found to be wonderfully contradictory.

It's a film about regret fundamentally and I think the script is at its best when it's examining that. I went back and forth a lot about how I felt about Jay Kelly as a character and I like the fact that the film condone his actions or redeem him by the end and I felt it left the audience the space to come to its own conclusions. I think the script does a very good job at portraying the characters inner struggle and I never felt like the success he's achieved stopped me from sympathising with him when I felt I needed to. George Clooney is basically perfectly cast to the point where I truly do not believe anyone else could've play that part better and with it being such a stacked cast it just became more and more exciting to see actors of this calibre play off each other. On a visual level it's mostly very strong and there's a lot more interesting work being done behind the camera than I expected but done to varying degrees of success.

There's a lot of flashback scenes but the way they're depicted did not always work for me. It's clear what Baumbach was going for with these scenes but the way they're framed often felt quite awkward for me and stopped me from getting fully wrapped up in them. Maybe worse than that however is how unnecessary so many of them felt. There's a phenomenal scene with Billy Crudup early on that lingers over the rest of the film in which he recounts a story that we then see played out on screen a few scenes later. I failed to see what the point of it was when I already felt that having it conveyed verbally had given the right effect and I just wish the film as a whole took a less-is-more approach. The last shot in particular did not land the way I think Baumbach intended it to but that feeds into what I think is the biggest issue with the movie in that it just lacks subtlety. Theres times where the script just feels like it's beating you over the head with its themes and it often came across as if it didn't trust the audience to understand the point of the movie.

Jay Kelly doesn't always reach the heights it's aiming for but I never wasn't interested in what it was trying to explore. It ticks so many boxes for what I want in a film like this but I just it got out of its own way more and took a more subdued approach on a writing and a technical level. I did feel real emotions whilst watching this movie and that's something I always feel I have to give credit for I just wish I got that little bit more out of it.

You guys sure are one eyed, and vicious, Did no one see this as some sort of a eulogy , god forbid George should drop dead soon, but if he did, you'll all realise this is george talkin about george, not that any of you were paying attention.

Congrats Sandler, this is your direction. Totally believable characterisation.