George Clooney & Adam Sandler’s Netflix Movie Isn’t the Best Picture Contender We Hoped For

When Jay Kelly (George Clooney), the titular star of Noah Baumbach’s latest film, tries to pump himself up, he puts his name amongst the illustrious actors who have come before him. “Gary Cooper. Cary Grant. Jay Kelly. Clark Gable. Robert De Niro. Jay Kelly.” You could easily replace the name “Jay Kelly” with “George Clooney,” and this bit would still make perfect sense.

Kelly’s comparing himself to some of the greatest actors to grace the screen emphasizes how much Baumbach’s film often feels like it’s paying homage to the great movies-about-movies that have come before it. Its Robert Altman-esque opening is reminiscent of The Playerwith its overlapping dialogue; Jay Kelly’s attempt to reconnect with the people who watch his movies is akin to Preston Sturges’ Sullivan’s Travels; The way Kelly does some soul-searching through his past films (and in Italy, no less) feels right out of Federico Fellini’s 8½. Yet, unlike those films that really delve into what it takes to make great art and the toll it takes on one’s life, Jay Kelly never quite reaches greatness in the way those films do. Jay Kelly is trying to reach for the stars, and while it gets close, it can’t quite grasp what it’s going for.

George Clooney Is an Aging Movie Star in Noah Baumbach’s ‘Jay Kelly’

After 35 years in the movie industry, Jay Kelly finds himself contemplating what his life has meant. All of his memories revolve around the projects he’s been in, and when his mentor and friend, Peter Schneider (Jim Broadbent), dies, he starts looking back and trying to find a deeper understanding of it all. Yes, he’s become one of the greats, but he also has two kids, Jessica and Daisy (Riley Keough and Grace Edwards), whom he hasn’t been there for, and a life lived on sets. His closest friend — although he probably wouldn’t admit that — is his manager, Ron Sukenick (Adam Sandler), who will drop everything to assist him in any way he can.

Jay runs into his old acting friend from his 20s, Timothy (Billy Crudup), who believes Jay stole his one shot at stardomand Timothy admits he hates Jay. Timothy could’ve been a star, but now, he’s a child psychologist with a family, while Jay has been in the limelight for almost four decades. After the two get in a fight, Jay goes on a journey of self-discoverydeciding to find Daisy on a trip to Europe with friends to spend more time with her, while also thinking back on his life as he prepares to accept a lifetime achievement award in Italy.

‘Jay Kelly’ Struggles To Figure Out What It Wants to Be

A common refrain in Jay Kelly is this idea that it’s hard to be yourself, especially for an actor on the screen. Jay Kelly is doing so much that it’s hard to find exactly what this film’s identity is. Most of it is in service of giving us a rough idea of who Jay Kelly is: he’s got charm to spare, but he is self-centered in a way he doesn’t always recognize, and has clearly put his career over his family. But Baumbach’s film doesn’t really know how to delve any deeper into this character, other than showing his occasional regrets over the path he’s chosen, as opposed to the one he could’ve had. Jay Kelly only probes its title character enough to say that he’s a sometimes egocentric character who is disappointed he didn’t do things differently, and there are already plenty of films about entertainers that hit on this idea.

The screenplay, written by Noah Baumbach and Emily Mortimer — both of whom also make cameos — is attempting to do too much and feels cluttered with ideas. For example, Jay’s entourage is full of characters we barely have a chance to learn the names of, and when Kelly takes a train through Europe, we’re introduced to a whole slew of new people who weirdly become part of his journey. There are relationships not fully exploredsuch as the one that used to exist between Jay and Ron, as well as his publicist, Liz (Laura Dern). In a way, this all does speak to Jay Kelly’s way of looking at the past in fragments, as we get general ideas of who people are rather than a deep dive into them, but it ends up feeling like a lot of concepts being thrown at the wall to see what sticks.

Because of this, Jay Kelly has a lot of good ideas that never achieve greatnessas interesting concepts pop in here and there, but Baumbach and Mortimer’s strongest theme is the idea of how differing viewpoints can have wholly different perspectives on a moment in time. Back in his 20s, Jay didn’t seemingly understand that when he had his big break, it stole Timothy’s potential future from him. In another scene, Jay reflects on a previous role, where he started to fall for his co-star and felt some sense of familial normalcy with her. As he looks back, he can’t help but wonder if this was a moment that only he felt, or if his co-star also remembers it fondly. In a screenplay that wants to hit on a lot of concepts, this way of multiple people seeing one moment differently is the strongest that Baumbach and Mortimer hit on.

George Clooney Might Be the Star of ‘Jay Kelly,’ but Adam Sandler Steals the Show

Image via Netflix

As one would expect, George Clooney is naturally good at playing one of the last great movie stars. Clooney has always been great at both being a larger-than-life figure and playing a character who can come off as just a normal guy, and Jay Kelly allows him to do both. Clooney always makes Jay a likable character who we want to find some solace amongst his mistakes, but this also speaks to the way that Baumbach and Mortimer don’t want to explore the darker aspects of this character’s reality —like the fact that he is often a bad father and friend— enough to make him anything other than a charming star.

Jay Kelly doesn’t attempt to be a criticism of the entertainment industry in any way or approach it with much insight into the way it really works. However, it does occasionally try to find an equivalency between Jay Kelly and George Clooney that just doesn’t work. At times, footage from Clooney’s actual films is used as stand-ins for Kelly’s films, and it’s almost as though Jay Kelly wants us to see this as a half-assed meta comparison to Clooney’s work. But hell, if there’s one person who shouldn’t identify with what Jay Kelly is dealing with, it’s Clooney — a man who spent the majority of his career focusing on his celebrity, only to have a solid family life after he accomplished what he wanted. If anything, Clooney is proof that you can have your cake and eat it too, and it’s odd for the film to try to make a false equivalency between the two.

Jay Kelly’s best performance comes from Sandlerwhose Ron has his own struggle in trying to figure out what his future is with his most important client. Ron sees Jay as both a friend and a boss, but as Jay’s story progresses, Ron starts to question if this is a one-sided friendship. Sandler is a great choice for Ron, as he excels at showing his frustrations with Jay, but also just how much he cares through his actions. While we watch Jay as he goes through his introspective journey, it’s Ron’s story that often hits the hardest, and Sandler beautifully nails the emotionality of these scenes. It’s no surprise that some of the finest moments in Jay Kelly rely on the dynamic between these two and on where they stand at any given time.

As Jay leaves LA for Europe in the film’s first act, Ron asks Jay if he’s running from something or if he’s running to something, to which Jay replies, “Yes.” Similarly, Jay Kelly always feels like it’s trekking this middle-ground, trying to present a moving, heartbreaking experience, but without ever being willing to go deep enough to make that happen. It’s desperate to say something about celebrity, getting older, the bonds that we create through life and their importance, the regrets we have, etc., but it’s too scattered to do any of those ideas justice. Like the title character himself, Jay Kelly is a film that has good intentions, but doesn’t have the follow-through to make good on those promises.

Jay Kelly screened at the Middleburg Film Festival. It opens in select theaters on November 14, followed by its release on Netflix on December 5.

Release Date

November 14, 2025

Runtime

132 minutes

Director

Noah Baumbach

Writers

Emily Mortimer, Noah Baumbach

Producers

David Heyman, Noah Baumbach, Amy Pascal

Pros & Cons

• Adam Sandler gives a fantastic performance in Jay Kelly that steals the show.
• Jay Kelly’s look at the duality of shared memories hits on some of the film’s best ideas.

• Jay Kelly is too scattered and too full of ideas to fully work well.
• As a film about celebrity and regrets, Jay Kelly isn’t really saying anything we haven’t heard before.