Jay Kelly

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.

George Clooney. What can I say? A brilliant actor who really understands his craft. The story is poignant and moving, the humor is well placed, and the scenery is beautiful. As an older man I feel many of the story's elements personally. I appreciated the creativity of the film's methods.

Still, I regret that the film was tedious and slow at times. It feels like it was edited by the director, and not a storyteller.

Mostly great.

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.

I've loved Noah Baumbach from the jump, however here we are in 2025 with a retrospective character study that grabs, dips, and meanders from a semi-relatable introspection to how-did-we-get-here slog. I liked it? Yes, mostly. I was never bored, and I did laugh out loud at quite a few parts, it's just - - - editing, I guess? Some things definitely could have taken up residence on the cutting room floor. Sandler does a fine job, as does the entirety of the cast. I cue Sandler though because Sandler. He isn't exactly known for his subtlety. The music is a nice stand out. Mortimer being co-writer, her character could've gotten more play. And Laura Dern? Love her. But if the film lost her character entirely, that might give the pace a little more? As it stands, it's the cacophonous surroundings of Jay Kelly's world that elevate the film as much as it bogs itself down. Less is more.