JAY KELLY
Directed by: Noah Baumbach
Starring: George Clooney, Adam Sandler, Laura Dern
Release Date: November 14, 2025
Platform: Netflix
Rating: 3.5/5
By Stephen Lackey
Noah Baumbach’s latest talky character piece JAY KELLY is a film that should have played in
cinemas. Seeing it in a theater would have made the story feel like a meta experience. George
Clooney plays Jay Kelly, a successful actor on the backside of his career reflecting on a life that
hasn’t fully belonged to him, though for most of it he was okay with that. Adam Sandler plays
his longtime manager and friend, with Laura Dern rounding out Kelly’s team and serving as a
complicated love interest for Sandler’s character.
The story finds Kelly at a turning point. One of his daughters has built a life for herself that no
longer includes her father, and his second daughter is transitioning into adulthood without him as
well. At the same time, Kelly reconnects with a friend from his past who pushes him to further
examine who he is and the decisions he’s made. What follows is a breakdown of his life through
memories of past films and family interactions.
JAY KELLY’s story is fairly predictable. There are no real surprises in the film, but they aren’t
meant to be. The beginning, middle, and end simply provide space to examine what it means
to be an actor or a celebrity living in the public eye. Small personal moments are made public
and inflated beyond their importance, while big moments become distorted by perception and
adoration.
Clooney plays Kelly as a quiet man, opposite the character’s public persona, vulnerable and
confused about how he feels at this stage of his life. He loves the acting career he has built but
mourns what he’s lost along the way. It’s grounded and relatable to feel remorse over certain
decisions but not outright regret them. Sandler does a fine job as Kelly’s sidekick, though he
never brings anything so specific that it feels like only Adam Sandler could have played the role.
There is an interesting thread in the film about how a celebrity’s life changes and how those
changes inevitably affect everyone orbiting them. Laura Dern is solid as always, though nothing
in her performance stands out as a defining moment.
Cinematically, this is a Noah Baumbach film—so it’s a dialogue heavy character piece first, with visuals
taking a back seat. There are a few nice wide landscape shots, but nothing particularly
memorable. Baumbach isn’t making big cinema experiences; his films are purposefully intimate.
Kelly’s memories, though not conventionally cinematic, feel like “scenes,” which makes sense
for him as an actor replaying his life as if it were structured storytelling. The narrative is often
paint-by-numbers, but Clooney’s performance is nuanced and vulnerable, with Sandler and Dern
doing exactly what the story requires of them. The final scene is fantastic—an incredibly meta
moment capped with a pitch-perfect final beat.
