![\"Jay](\"https:\/\/d1nslcd7m2225b.cloudfront.net\/Pictures\/480xany\/3\/0\/8\/1458308_jaykelly3_607396.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Dir: Noah Baumbach. US\/UK\/Italy. 2025. 132mins<\/p>\n
It takes a village to raise a movie star; especially one who, at 60, is starting to doubt the life choices he\u2019s made. Noah Baumbach\u2019s melancholy drama stars George Clooney as the titular A-lister as he travels to Europe to receive a lifetime achievement award, his anxious entourage in tow. But although Jay Kelly explores familiar thematic terrain of an ageing man wrestling with regret, this tender film is mildly radical in its insistence that celebrities were once just everyday people \u2014 and might still be during unguarded moments.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Compassionately chronicles the human toll of celebrity<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This is Baumbach\u2019s third straight feature to premiere in competition in Venice, following 2022\u2019s festival opener White Noise and 2019\u2019s Marriage Story. Jay Kelly\u00a0then opens in the US on November 14 before streaming on Netflix on December 5. The studio (which has now released four Baumbach pictures) is aiming for awards consideration, particularly for Clooney, who is joined by a high-profile cast that includes Adam Sandler and Laura Dern. No doubt this tale of a Hollywood luminary, and the people who work for him, will resonate with many industry professionals.<\/p>\n
Longtime star Jay Kelly (Clooney) has completed yet another picture, and is about to start another one, when he attends the funeral of the filmmaker who launched his career 35 years ago. At the service, Jay runs into Tim (Billy Crudup), a former friend who started acting around the same time \u2014 and who accuses Jay of stealing his big break. The two men end up in a physical altercation, which prompts Jay to question his priorities and abandon his forthcoming film.<\/p>\n
Instead, he impulsively flies to Paris, hoping to meet up with his teenage daughter Daisy (Grace Edwards), who is spending her summer backpacking with friends, before heading to Tuscany to accept a career achievement honour. Fearful that Jay will be in breach of contract, his loyal manager Ron (Sandler) and publicist Liz (Dern) tag along, desperate to ensure Jay doesn\u2019t renege on this upcoming film.<\/p>\n
Despite the summer timeframe, Jay Kelly has an autumnal air as it follows a wistful Jay on an existential journey through his past. At key moments, the actor relives crucial memories, including the incident that angered Tim, marriages that went wrong, children he neglected, colleagues he disappointed. These gracefully-integrated flashbacks, in which Charlie Rowe plays the younger, carefree Jay, are staged in a realistic manner, with the present-day Jay watching the action as an outside observer.<\/p>\n
Although Baumbach and co-writer Emily Mortimer satirise Hollywood\u2019s disconnect from the real world, the film could hardly be described as a takedown of out-of-touch elites. Rather, Jay Kelly compassionately chronicles the human toll of celebrity \u2014 both on the celebrity and those in their midst. Jay may be trying to forge a bond with distant Daisy \u2014 not to mention his older daughter, Jessica (Keough), who wants nothing to do with him \u2014 but Ron and Liz similarly struggle with a work\/life imbalance. They are not famous like Jay, but they too have misgivings about their devotion to this demanding industry, sacrificing relationships in the name of maintaining their Hollywood clout.<\/p>\n
Clooney is ideally suited to play a suave, charming older actor who fears he never was an artist of much depth. Wielding a megawatt smile, which feels both like Jay\u2019s defence mechanism and a foolproof tool to disarm others, Clooney hints at the man\u2019s inability to transcend his personal limitations. Jay may be a well-meaning, soulful individual, but there\u2019s a nagging superficiality about him \u2014 the same surface-level appeal that has made him such a great movie star, adept at embodying others but never truly authentic as himself. Clooney\u2019s old-school Hollywood handsomeness, paired with the vulnerability he brought to dramas like The Descendants, allows Jay to be a fascinatingly complex shallow person.<\/p>\n
The film\u2019s measured perspective on Jay occasionally gets interrupted by an uneven comedic tone, as well as Baumbach\u2019s underdeveloped interest in other characters. Sandler, who previously appeared in Baumbach\u2019s The Meyerowitz Stories, gives a nicely grounded performance as Ron, the harried manager who genuinely believes that what Jay does has real value in a world that needs to be entertained. Some of the film\u2019s best and most bittersweet moments involve just Jay and Ron, who has provided this movie star with his most consistent and rewarding relationship.<\/p>\n
Production companies: Pascal Pictures, Heyday Films, NB\/GG Pictures<\/p>\n
Worldwide distribution: Netflix<\/p>\n
Producers: David Heyman, Amy Pascal, Noah Baumbach<\/p>\n
Screenplay: Noah Baumbach & Emily Mortimer<\/p>\n
Cinematography: Linus Sandgren<\/p>\n
Production design: Mark Tildesley<\/p>\n
Editing: Valerio Bonelli, Rachel Durance<\/p>\n
Music: Nicholas Britell<\/p>\n
Main cast:\u00a0George Clooney, Adam Sandler, Laura Dern, Billy Crudup, Riley Keough, Grace Edwards, Stacy Keach, Jim Broadbent, Patrick Wilson, Eve Hewson, Greta Gerwig, Alba Rohrwacher, Josh Hamilton, Lenny Henry, Emily Mortimer, Nicole Lecky, Thaddea Graham, Isla Fisher, Louis Partridge, Charlie Rowe\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n