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The casting defaults to the tired formula of white male protagonists, while Europe is rendered through embarrassingly outdated stereotypes that feel decades out of touch.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'm a sucker for introspective, slow-paced movies, and this one hits that sweet spot perfectly. It follows George Clooney's character as he reflects on his entire life - from his biggest achievements to his hardest regrets - ultimately coming face to face with some harsh truths and realizations. We also get glimpses of that same emotional journey through a few other characters, mainly Adam Sandler, who delivers his most serious role yet.

The film explores how the road to career success can come at the expense of your personal life, and how each person copes with that differently. It's also a movie about filmmaking itself, with Clooney playing an actor - another theme I absolutely love.

The cast is fantastic across the board, but with the story centered on Clooney and Sandler, they naturally stand out. Both give incredible performances, especially Sandler, who completely steps outside his usual lane and nails it. The cinematography, scenery, and production design are top-tier, but the script is the true standout. It blends drama and comedy so naturally, and honestly, I think we need more films like this - emotional, feel-good, and thought-provoking.

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.

This film was written for George Clooney, by George Clooney. I understand the basic premise of it: a 35 year illustrious career in which you are highly esteemed by the public and pedestaled as a hero, but all your personal relationships have disintegrated as a result.

The result, however, was a very slow-paced film with poor dialogue (one-liners that were intended as gut punches but fell flat due to lack of conviction) and a LOT of close-ups of Clooney's face.

Clooney acts as he always does -- he plays himself. The film read as extremely self-obsessed, this meta tribute to his own career while lamenting on what he's lost along the way. While there were some heartfelt moments nearing the end of the film, they were lost in the extremely drawn-out plot and self-pity.

Honorable mention goes to Adam Sandler, who I hadn't seen in a serious role such as this before. He nailed the role of a star actor's manager -- you could feel the sheer exhaustion and lack of agency that he felt responding to every beck and call of someone who didn't acknowledge his humanity.

If an introspective single character film is what you're in the market for, this may fit the bill. If you're looking for an actual plot, genuine introspection, or actually utilizing Laura Dern's talent, look elsewhere.

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.