Picture Credit: Netflix
From Heyday Films, NBGG Pictures, & Pascal Pictures, Jay Kelly is the latest Netflix studio film from indie film superstar Noah Baumbach, his fourth project for the streamer over the last 8 years. Each of his last three films – The Meyerowitz Stories (2017), Marriage Story (2019), & White Noise (2022) – have all garnered award season consideration, with Marriage Story being the most acknowledged, receiving 6 Academy Award nominations and a major Oscar win for Laura Dern in Best Supporting Actress.
Baumbach’s latest is quite possibly his most commercial film to date as Jay Kelly – the film and the lead character played by George Clooney – examines the emotional pitfalls of choosing stardom over substance, fame over family, & movies over memories (or at least in the more traditional sense).
Now in his 60s and between movies, Kelly is facing an empty nest as his youngest daughter Daisy (Grace Edwards) has finished high school with an eye on college in the Fall. As Daisy decides to go on a trip to Europe with her friends instead of being with her Dad before his new movie begins, Kelly decides to change the course of all of his engagements to turn his sights to Europe as well, accepting a tribute in his honor and following Daisy’s itinerary in hopes to meet up with her on her big trip and convince her to come to the big celebration of his career.
But this is all what Jay Kelly wants; something that has been paramount for the people who work for him despite their own lives and desires & paramount for Jay as he’s always just done what is in service of his road to stardom & maintaining his status as Hollywood royalty. His trusted manager Ron (Adam Sandler) has family commitments he has to shirk at a moments’ notice & romantic interests in his past he had to cast aside; similar stories for his publicist Liz (Laura Dern) and the countless others in his orbit. Decades have gone by where the constant in Jay’s life is having his needs met without enough consideration for those closest to him.
Picture: Netflix
The film opens with a quote from Sylvia Plath that says, “It’s a hell of a responsibility to be yourself. It’s much easier to be somebody else or nobody at all.” Serving as an ethos for the film, the quote and the movie seem to have an empathy for those who choose not to be themselves or maybe don’t know themselves at all, as one of the taglines of the film states: Everybody knows Jay Kelly, but Jay Kelly doesn’t know himself.
However, the story, written by Baumbach and British actress/filmmaker Emily Mortimer (Notting Hill, Pattington in Peru), seems to display something different in practice. The story paints a portrait of a man who knows exactly who he is, but doesn’t want to pay for the choices he’s made. Many reviews of the film out of the Fall Festivals use words like “sentimental” to describe Jay Kelly, but I believe it to be more about regret, the choices we make, and how to live with them – and who better to relate with in those feelings than a *checks notes* massive movie star.
The most useful or compelling scenes for me are the flashbacks of Jay’s life that are used to show who he’s been over time and how those glimpses add up to where he is today. His version of A Christmas Carol presents: a sliding doors moment in his earliest acting days as his friend struggles in his audition for a major film role and he takes advantage of being in the room by asking to read for the part and getting his big break, a fond on-set memory of being taken with his female co-star while his own marriage was struggling at home, & a trip to see his estranged daughter in her classroom right before she takes him to a therapy session in order to read him a letter about how she felt abandoned by him and how he never wanted to spend time with her. These memories show that he was always putting himself first, even though he had the capacity for love & the ability to create and support a family in more ways than money.
As for his present and future “ghosts” in this scenario, look no further than his manager Ron, who wishes he was the man he thought he was, and the director of his first film / longtime friend Peter Schneider (Jim Broadbent), who was eulogized by his son as not being around, chasing down money for his next project, or being on set for months on end. Jay Kelly is destined to be the latter once more with much of that damage already hardening in his own children. His relationship with Ron hardly shows growth in the present despite asking him to be by his side at the tribute. It’s not sentimental; it’s just plain sad. It’s a real “if you can’t be with the ones you love, love the ones you’re with” scenario with two men hoping all their sacrifices meant something in the end.
Picture: Netflix
Your mileage on Jay Kelly’s journey, personality, & level of contrition will determine where you fall on the success of this story. For me, I found it hard to reach out to a man like him; a man who never looked back until it was too late; a man who left many strangers in awe, but many loved ones in anguish – all presented on screen in a brightly shot, beautifully rendered dream scenario played sometimes even for laughs.
In 2025, there are at least a couple of regretful father stories in the same awards conversation as Jay Kelly that feel far more understood or empathetic than this story. Clint Bentley’s Train Dreams paints a portrait of a father who loses time with his family being on jobs for so long, doesn’t love the work or the people he works with, but it’s the only way he knows how to provide. He loses everything in ultimate tragedy and has to pay for it for the rest of his years in guilt and regret – an almost inverse of the Jay Kelly story. Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value shows a father who also works in films as a director expressing his ideas & emotions through the art, but struggles to connect with his family with words and actions when it mattered most, coming off as cold or uncaring. His struggles & regrets are painful to watch, but they are empathic and beautifully explored as he tries to make his children see why he struggles in the only way he can.
Noam Baumbach’s least biting & most showy film is his least effective. Jay Kelly lived a life most people don’t experience, with motivations that don’t necessarily endear themselves to the average person either. It’s a film that feels sorry for itself with very little reason to put your arms around it. While I will always have a level of enjoyment in hearing Noah Baumbach dialogue read by some of the most talented casts ever assembled, I fear Jay Kelly may leave many, like myself, at arm’s reach. Maybe it’s hardest to be yourself because you simply don’t like what you see, Mr. Kelly.
Watch Jay Kelly If You Liked
- Funny People
- All That Jazz
- Sentimental Value,
MVP of Jay Kelly
Adam Sandler as Jay’s Manager Ron Sukenick
If Jay Kelly can ask for one more take, maybe I can too; a take where Ron Sukenick is the lead and Jay Kelly is the supporting performance.
Adam Sandler, who has now proven over a couple decades now that he is more than his larger-than-life comedic performances of the 90s & early 2000s, gives the audience a glimpse of a more relatable & understood character in his portrayal of Jay Kelly’s manager Ron. Giving everything for someone, sacrificing your own needs for something bigger, & trying to build a legacy are captured well in every empathetic (though largely undeserved) “poppy” he serves Jay Kelly’s way.
Described by his former co-star Drew Barrymore as loving and loyal himself, it’s no shock that Sandler brings a level of authenticity to a character looking for appreciation & friendship after decades of selfless devotion. Hopefully, The Sandman can receive his long overdue recognition himself as a nominee for Best Supporting Actor at this year’s Oscars.
Bathed in bright colors and beautiful European countryside vistas & directed with a soft empathy for its subject, Jay Kelly looks back on a life asking for another take. But Baumbach & Mortimer’s script asks for too much as a chronically selfish, unrelatable movie star wonders where it all went wrong and if it was all worth it. Baumbach’s direction and a legion of brilliant acting performances – led by Sandler – will make the experience go down easy, but may not linger much past the credits.
