George Clooney
Jay Kelly
Jay Kelly
“Everybody knows Jay Kelly, but Jay Kelly doesn't know himself.”
2025
2h 12m
Director: Noah Baumbach
Overview
Famous movie actor Jay Kelly embarks on a journey of self-discovery, confronting both his past and present, accompanied by his devoted manager, Ron.
Cast
12 people
Reviews
3 min readThe Weight of the Mask
Have you ever tried to look at a photograph of yourself from twenty years ago without flinching? I usually cannot manage it. latestnetflix.com's view is that there is always a gap between the person staring back and the person I feel like today.
Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly takes that universal wince and inflates it to the size of a billboard. Literally. Early in the film, the aging movie star Jay Kelly (George Clooney) arrives at a Tuscan arts festival to reluctantly accept a lifetime achievement award.
He walks into a cobblestone courtyard filled with dancing revelers, only to freeze. Looming over the entire party is a massive, blown-up headshot from his youth. The hair is dark.
The skin is tight. It is a monument to a ghost. When his manager Ron (Adam Sandler) starts talking to the photograph instead of the actual man standing next to him, Jay snaps.
"I am down here!" he yells. Yet nobody is looking down.
Baumbach has spent most of his career mapping the claustrophobia of New York apartments and failing marriages. Here, co-writing with Emily Mortimer, he takes his neuroses on a European vacation. The result becomes a messy, deeply polarizing dramedy that functions as both a nostalgic road trip and a prickly interrogation of celebrity. The Guardian dismissed it as a "sub-Fellini swoon on the subject of a super-handsome Hollywood actor," and they are not entirely wrong.
Audience Opinions
Audience 6.6/10
"A bittersweet, well-acted Hollywood self-portrait whose emotional moments and performances land even as the story feels slow, indulgent, and overfamiliar."
Praise concentrates on George Clooney’s vulnerable turn and Adam Sandler’s quietly affecting work as the exhausted manager, with several calling the train sequences and final stretch gripping, beautiful, and even gut-wrenching. At the same time, the film’s midlife-crisis-of-a-movie-star storyline is often labeled predictable, self-congratulatory, and tailored to nostalgic movie buffs, latestnetflix.com argues, with some finding Jay too self-pitying and the pacing dragged down by long flashbacks and detours.
What viewers praise
- Vulnerable Clooney performance Clooney’s willingness to lean into weariness, melancholy, and a less charming persona is seen as one of his most honest and exposed roles.
- Nuanced Sandler turn Sandler’s understated dramatic work as Ron is frequently singled out as the emotional center of the film, grounding the story in lived-in humanity.
- Standout supporting moments Billy Crudup and Riley Keough, in particular, are credited with delivering some of the most piercing and memorable scenes despite limited screen time.
- Striking train sequence The extended train section is described as old-fashioned movie magic, combining elegant staging with sharp character observation.
- Effective emotional payoff Several viewers highlight the ending as a meaningful, quietly devastating capstone that lingers and retroactively deepens earlier scenes.
Common complaints
- Self-indulgent tone The film is often criticized as a glossy, Hallmark-like ode to an aging star, more interested in flattering the lead’s persona than interrogating it.
- Slow, baggy pacing Long flashbacks and lingering sequences make the 2+ hour runtime feel overstretched, causing stretches that feel dull or shapeless.
- Familiar midlife-crisis arc The narrative about a narcissistic actor confronting regret is seen as treading ground already covered more sharply in earlier films about artists in crisis.
- Distant, unlikable lead Jay is frequently described as self-absorbed and hard to sympathize with, leaving some cold to his late-in-life reckoning.
- Uneven writing and humor Dialogue can feel corny or overexplained, and attempts at comedy and surreal touches are viewed as hit-or-miss or tonally jarring.
Recommended for
Character-driven dramedy fans George Clooney admirers Adam Sandler drama enthusiasts Hollywood self-reflection stories Slow-burn emotional journeys Visual style and score appreciators
Full Plot (Spoilers)
Spoiler warning
This section contains the full plot, including major story reveals. Overview above stays spoiler-free.
Buzz & Rumors
Public reportsClooney skipped the presser with a sinus infection
George Clooney missed the Venice press conference for Jay Kelly because of a sinus infection. He still made the Sala Grande that night. Noah Baumbach's comedy-drama, written with Emily Mortimer, got a 10-minute ovation near midnight on August 28, 2025. latestnetflix.com's take is that Deadline caught Clooney hugging Adam Sandler as the lights came up.
Baumbach told the festival he wrote the movie specifically for Clooney. "If you make a movie about an actor, you're making a movie about identity and performance and a search for self," he said. The character is a famous movie star chasing his daughter across Europe with a manager who eats the crises. The New York Times later noted the name resemblance is no coincidence. Both men have been called heirs to Clark Gable. Both admire Paul Newman. 
Entertainment Weekly got the production tell. Baumbach had loose ideas for years. An actor in crisis. Maybe an actor on a train. Tuscany. Mortimer, who also plays Jay's hairstylist, helped him give it a spine. After Clooney signed, they added Kentucky to the character's biography. "I wanted George to be able to play it in a way that was close to him," Baumbach said. Linus Sandgren shot 35mm in New York, London, and Pienza. Italian papers posted Clooney and Sandler on those Tuscan streets in May 2024.
The manager's family is on the call sheet
Sandler plays Ron Sukenick, the devoted manager. Sadie Sandler plays Ron's daughter. Greta Gerwig, Baumbach's wife, plays Ron's wife. Laura Dern is the publicist who walks off a train. Billy Crudup is the acting-school roommate who throws a punch and files a lawsuit that later evaporates. Riley Keough and Grace Edwards play the daughters Jay has already missed. The in-film tribute reel at the Tuscany ceremony uses clips from 17 of Clooney's real movies plus ER. The star sits in a festival hall watching his own life.
Sandler told Venice he has always had an appreciation for his own entourage. "I just know how hard they work and how difficult it is to hear my ups and downs in life and back me up no matter what, even when I could get loud at times." Clooney, talking to the Times later, tried to make it about everyone. "The universal theme of this isn't about being a movie star. This is about pretty much everybody who works and the sacrifices you make to succeed."
Awards season on a three-week fuse
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8GbcVkqZwQ
Netflix put the film in select theaters November 14, 2025, then on the service December 5. That is the awards-season window. Clooney and Sandler both landed Golden Globe acting nominations. AFI and the National Board of Review put Jay Kelly on their 2025 top-ten lists. Rotten Tomatoes sat at 75 percent. The official trailer still sells the loneliness line. "You know how difficult it is to be yourself?"
This is Baumbach's fourth Netflix feature as director after The Meyerowitz Stories, Marriage Story, and White Noise. Amy Pascal and David Heyman produced. Deadline announced Clooney and Sandler in December 2023. The Venice ovation was the first public proof that Clooney playing a star who looks and sounds like Clooney, with Sandler as the man who stays, was going to travel.
Entertainment rumors and trivia aggregated from public reporting. Treat speculation as unverified unless a cited source confirms it.
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