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R | 2h 12m | Dramedy | 2025
Actor Joshua Jackson once reminisced about the single coolest movie-star moment he’d ever seen. He was on the set of “Ocean’s Eleven” with Brad Pitt and George Clooney, and Clooney was holding court, talking about the 12 brand-new Indian motorcycles he’d just had delivered to the sound stage to give to his friends. The caveat was, Clooney was having them shipped out to Italy the next day—his friends would all have to jet-set to Italy to pick them up.
Then, a female P.A. approached Clooney. Midway through asking him if he wanted a cup of coffee—she fainted dead away. Clooney immediately caught her mid-swoon, with one arm, said, “No, that’s okay babe—oh—I got you.” He steadied her on her feet, and without missing a beat—went right back to the motorcycle story.
Jackson realized fan-swooning happens to George Clooney so often that it no longer registers in his mind that this is not normal behavior.
So—who better to play movie star Jay Kelly, in Netflix’s “Jay Kelly,” than George Clooney?
Movie Star
George Clooney essentially plays himself in “Jay Kelly.” That’s what megawatt movie stars do. The movie-going public generally has no concept of just how difficult it is to play oneself, but never mind all that—suffice it to say, it’s a richly textured performance.
That said, while the rebranded-as-a-serious-actor Adam Sandler helps bolster “Jay Kelly,” it’s a showbiz-centric dramedy that’s not all that relatable. It’s about one man’s contemplation of his movie star legacy, but few of us breathe this kind of rarified air. The unspoken sentiment that hangs in the air for two-plus hours is: “First world problems.”
The film opens with a title-card quote from Sylvia Plath: “It’s a hell of a responsibility to be yourself. It’s much easier to be somebody else or nobody at all.” Then, there’s a meandering, extended shot that works its way through a film set crew before settling on the titular character, Kelly, a 60-something movie star filming a scene. When his canine co-star makes a premature entry on-set, Kelly wants another take, though the director assures him they already got the shot.
Jay is suitably charming and relatively low-maintenance compared to the classic Hollywood diva. However, the self-involved, one-sided relationships he has with both manager Ron (Adam Sandler) and publicist Liz (Laura Dern), bespeak of a low-key but pernicious narcissism.
Self-Reflection
Informed that Peter Schneider (Jim Broadbent), Jay’s mentor and the first director to give the up-and-coming youthful Jay (Charlie Rowe) his big break—has passed away, Jay begins to reminisce. “All my memories are movies,” Jay realizes.
The relationships in his life that should have mattered all took a backseat to the pampered comfort of his career. Jay wakes up at this life crossroads and hopes to mend neglected relationships before it’s too late.
The self-reflection jag kicks off due to some long overdue fisticuffs with a former acting classmate (Billy Crudup in a brief but virtuoso support role). Jay ends up canceling his latest film role and makes plans to surprise his youngest daughter, Daisy (Grace Edwards), on her European holiday.
Daughters Unhappy With Dad
Daisy has made it abundantly clear that she doesn’t want him around, but Jay’s clueless, self-involved nature leads him to think she does. Dragging the long-suffering Ron and Liz with him, he opts to walk among the little people and ride the train with them, sans his usual travel luxuries, and so on and so forth.
Between Daisy’s annoyance, his eldest daughter Jessica’s (Riley Keough) lifelong feelings of abandonment, and his nonexistent emotional connection to his father (Stacy Keach), it’s perfectly clear why Jay’s memories are all tied to his film career.
But he wants them to know, especially Jessica, that though he chose to focus on his career, he never meant that isolation to last. He thought he’d get the ball rolling and then have time for family. But it turned out, to be able to keep what he had, he had to dedicate his entire existence to showbiz.
Overall
Clooney manages to elicit some sympathy in the role, but to really care about Jay’s Hollywood-centric world is a bit of a tall order. With so much star power in the cast, it’s a bit hard to believe “Jay Kelly” is this lightweight. So many two-plus hour-long movies lately leave one ruing the fact that that’s precious time spent on a whole lot of nothin’, and one can’t get that time back. For a far more rewarding experience with the exact same premise—famous movie director puts his career before his two daughters—see the very fine “Sentimental Value” instead.
“Jay Kelly” began streaming on Netflix on Dec. 5
‘Jay Kelly’
Director: Noah Baumbach
Starring: George Clooney, Adam Sandler, Laura Dern, Billy Crudup, Greta Gerwig
MPAA Rating: R
Running Time: 2 hours, 12 minutes
Release Date: Dec. 5, 2025
Rating: 2 1/2 stars out of 5
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