Jay Kelly Movie Review (Venice Film Festival 2025): An Intimate and Melancholy Work
Jay Kelly Movie Review (Venice Film Festival 2025): Noah Baumbach in competition at Venezia 82, Jay Kelly, a film that opens with a quote from Sylvia Plath: “Being yourself is an accident of responsibility. It’s easier to be someone else.” It is the key to understanding a work that addresses, with a melancholic and at the same time ironic tone, the themes of identity, memory, and the price of success. The protagonist is embodied by George Clooney in the role of Hollywood star Jay Kelly, an actor who, now in his sixties, looks in the mirror and no longer recognizes those in front of him. Alongside him is Adam Sandler in the role of manager Ron, witness and accomplice for 35 years of a career that ended up devouring both of them. A film that talks about the profession of the actor, but above all about the profession of living. The film, which sees Unsettled Clooney as a star in an existential crisis, moves with ease between the codes of drama and those of comedy, but it does so by choosing narrative shortcuts that limit its force.
The impression is that of a story “ben packaged”, capable of entertaining without ever really questioning the viewer. The central theme is that high-paid blockbuster classic: Jay Kelly, actor adored by the masses, is forced to confront what he has sacrificed along the way, especially family affections and authentic relationships. If Baumbach’s stated intent was that of questioning the identity and meaning of a life lived “on stage”, the result appears partly flattened by clichés already known, where the successful man pays the inevitable price of loneliness. Jay Kelly is the name of the most in-demand film actor of the moment. When he makes a hasty decision, there is his manager Ron to make him see reason. But this time, Jay is adamant, as well as unpredictable, and leaves for Paris to chase his daughter Daisy, who is about to start college. Jay would like to reconnect with Daisy, thus hoping to feel less of the weight of another difficult relationship, almost impossible to mend, the one with his eldest daughter, Jessie. But the desire for newfound fatherhood becomes only the beginning of an awareness that will lead Jay Kelly and Ron himself to come to terms with their choices.
Jay Kelly Movie Review (Venice Film Festival 2025): The Story Plot
The plot follows Jay Kelly (George Clooney), a Hollywood star who built his existence by chasing success first and then the need to defend it at all costs. The toll, now that the daughters have grown up and time seems to be accelerating, is bitter: a series of separations, broken family relationships, consummated friendships. His memoirs inevitably mix with the sets he attended: as his old mentor told him, “All my memories are movies”. Together with his agent and long-time friend Ron (Adam Sandler), Jay sets off in pursuit of his younger daughter who left with friends, on a journey that soon becomes more introspective than physical: between Paris and Tuscany, between reminiscences of the past and awareness of the present, the actor tries to understand if he has ever really lived as himself, or if he has only ever played a role, on and off the set.
A sequence shot within a film set opens the film by Noah Baumbach and Jay Kelly. It’s immediately that idyllic, melancholic, and delicate magic of a scene that will close the filming of a film. When you shout “end of set,” a blinding light illuminates a soundstage where a night with soft, soft and sweet shades was the backdrop to a gloomy evening, to a thin rain that fell perfectly from a ceiling, on the last day of life of a man who breathed his last while leaning against a street lamp. That silence that is artistic and romantic is abruptly interrupted by the ringing of phones, by high tones of voice, by the roars of the engines of the cars ready to start, and by a detailed program that an entire team reminds Jay Kelly, busy day and night, for the following months.
Thus, there is the enchanted charm of cinema and the uninterrupted responsibilities of an actor who is always in demand and always busy. A desire to turn as much as possible and distract oneself as little as possible, while a tragic event awakens memories. Jay Kelly, it is set in the Hollywood star system where the American dream is a difficult goal to achieve, but even more so, a status to maintain. Like actors, managers, and agents also lose sight of what they understand really matters in life: human relationships, affections. A time that will never return. Se George Clooney, he’s the Jay Kelly, haughty, temperamental, beloved, and oblivious to all those fleeting moments, lasting only an instant before vanishing, Adam Sandler, it is manager Ron who would do anything for him, to see him on set and to continue living from his work, addicted to the whims of those who are friends and employers.
Jay Kelly Movie Review and Analysis
His character, in fact, is an actor struggling with an identity crisis who realizes that he has dedicated all his time and energy to his work, that his only memories are those linked to his films and that of the family that he actually brought into the world he has never taken care of himself with the same dedication and passion put into his characters, his performances, the world of cinema. Thus, Jay Kelly – this is the name of the film but also of its main character – finds himself looking inside himself, as well as back, examining his conscience and reflecting on his mistakes, especially after the unexpected meeting with an old friend who, on the contrary, has never managed to break into the world of cinema. So, Jay comes into contact with his inner demons and has to deal with them. The cast of the film joins Clooney with great actors such as Adam Sandler (An unpredictable guy), Laura Dern (Jurassic Park), Billy Crudup (The Morning Show), and also the Italian Alba Rohrwacher, but none of the secondary characters are in-depth enough to impress or, at least, allow the public to become attached. Despite the stellar cast and good premises, this film is not fully convincing and seems to focus entirely on “easy” sentimentality, which, however, leaves the time it finds.
As convincing as he is in some of his passages and messages and as good an actor as Clooney proves to be, Jay Kelly delves into often unnecessary scenes, poorly structured dialogue, and is reduced, most of the time, to being the classic American film “cute,” not to expect too much from. But much, much more is expected from the official selection of the Venice Film Festival. The theme of identity is the beating heart of the film. Baumbach stages a man who has always acted twice: when he was on set and when he tried to be himself away from the spotlight. The existence of Jay Kelly becomes the paradigm of those who have defined themselves through the gaze of others, consuming their lives in an attempt to adhere to a role. The actor stops distinguishing between person and character, and this short circuit, which for years has guaranteed him success and applause, now reveals an unbridgeable void to him.
“Who are we when we no longer act?” the movie seems to be asking. And the answer never comes directly: it remains suspended, entrusted to the disenchanted gaze of Clooney, who embodies a man at the crossroads between the possibility of redemption and the awareness that time often does not grant second chances. The relationship with memory is one of the most painful moments of the story. Jay realizes that his memories are not living experiences, but cinematic sequences. Every emotion is associated with a film shot, a set, a role, as if life had given way to fiction. Memory is not consolation for him, but a wound that reopens, an illusion of authenticity that instead testifies to the absence of real life. Baumbach recounts this in restrained yet incisive tones, alternating moments of irony with flashes of melancholy, to the point of transforming Jay into a character who reflects on cinema as a metaphor for life itself: a script written by others, a succession of scenes in which we risk forgetting who we really are. This is where the film becomes universal, because Jay’s condition does not only concern the Hollywood star, but anyone who has ever wondered whether their days were really lived or just acted.
The relationship with Ron is perhaps the strongest emotional core of the film. Manager and friend, father figure and brother, Ron has followed Jay for over three decades, to the point of declaring, “I’m Jay Kelly too, we did it together”. In this joke, there is the truth of two existences fused into a unique identity, built on the altar of cinema and celebrity. But if Jay sacrificed his family for success, Ron chose to stay there for his loved ones, balancing his devotion to work differently. Baumbach thus outlines a character who, despite living in the shadow of the star, possesses a dignity and clarity that the protagonist lacks. Ron, however, also has to deal with a limit: to what extent is it possible to give up on oneself to support someone else? Its parable is parallel to Jay’s, offering the film great depth, showing how even fidelity and friendship can become a form of captivity.
The desire and whim this time for Jay Kelly, however, concern a vision of life that has changed: an awareness and assessment of existence, between a memory made only of films and the confident hope that it is not too late. And that the “after” does not become synonymous with “never”. But afterwards, however, the children grow up, the people change, and the wrongs suffered are now “past water”. Jay Kelly only needs one word, one look, one sigh, one unplanned hesitation to ask: Can I make sure that, in addition to the films I’ve starred in, there’s something else in my life? A phrase that comes back, cyclical, and is always there, in the mind of a man and an actor who has now become one person. Without identity, the most personal one that you need to live off.
Jay Kelly is both a film about cinema and a film about a man who finds himself thinking about his own mistakes, often hidden by successes, about the choice, seen as inevitable, to give up something to achieve something else. The universality of Jay Kelly is closeness and human warmth that everyone needs. The singularity is the representation of a cinema where the clichés are barely sketched, and therefore realistic, full of a sweetness that is nostalgic and recognizable. Jay Kelly is embellished with catchphrases imbued with bitterness, tenderness, and perhaps even meanings about the meaning of life, from “the hardest thing is playing yourself” to “how do I play people if I don’t see them?“, up to the one from which everything starts, “my memories are just the films I made“. Phrases that remain imprinted and have a double symbolic value, both cinematographic and narrative.
Jay Kelly is cinema, with its stimulating frenzy and languid sentimentality; it is the need for human contact and the father-daughter relationship that, in absence, turns into necessity. Wishing to be able to start again. But a Baumbach doesn’t like to reassure the viewer. Here, probably, there are interpersonal relationships saturated with disappointments, professional relationships where the real connection is only work-related. Jay Kelly is the extraordinary interpretation of George Clooney and Adam Sandler, enriched by the performances of an always astonishing Laura Dern, of a perfectly partial one Emily Mortimer, and a surprisingly excited one Dawn Rohrwacher. Jay Kelly is a poetic script, made up of inspired and moving dialogues, of exchanges where we talk about this and that, and where there is that impatient need to remember any necessary imminent commitment. In the film by Baumbach, he moves on a train where each compartment looks like a window into a forgotten world. A journey through Europe accurately taken up, with some clichés that can be accepted. A reflection on oneself that comes slowly, almost on tiptoe. And that suddenly turns out to be poignant.
The occasion is the new film directed and co-written (together with Emily Mortimer) by Noah Baumbach, which tells of a film star, Jay Kelly (hence the title), celebrated by everyone, who says “I make too many films” And adds several times “In fact, my memories are films”, suddenly sunk into a sort of crisis. Fresh from a further project (we see him acting), he is always surrounded by his manager Ron (played by Adam Sandler), now more than a confidant, dedicated to his role, thus leaving his wife (Greta Gerwig) and children alone. But just as a further set (and related costume fitting) approaches, two crucial events happen first. An old acting partner (Billy Crudup) meets him after the funeral of a director-friend, and under the pretense of a reunion, remembering the old days and drinking sounds, she openly accuses him (with a subsequent fistfight) of having stolen his first role and the girl, effectively ruining his life. Then, so as not to miss anything, things aren’t any better in the family either. The eldest daughter “accuses him” of having been too absent, of having only thought about work, while the youngest is about to spend her last summer before college with friends (and clearly without him).
From here, he makes a bizarre (and unexpected) decision: he leaves, crossing Europe: first Paris, then Tuscany, to Pienza (filming in the center and immersed in the countryside was beautiful), to receive a tribute prize, initially rejected, and then accepted, sharing the evening with another of Ron’s clients. But all this was born above all to “chase” his youngest daughter, rear-ending her until she takes the same train as her, but also (and she will gradually discover it) to try to reconcile with life, to get to know each other more, meeting her father again after a long time, to catch her breath, to understand your mistakes and shortcomings, to remedy them, without putting aside what really matters.
In Jay Kelly, beyond the humorous and playful tone, however, there is an interesting reflection on the theme of identity, who we are, and what we would like to do, or leave as a legacy to those who love us (and not just for fame). And Clooney, for a moment, seems to simply become George again, among the most intense moments of the film, in which he sees the real images of his works again, from Out of Sight, Syriana, and Michael Clayton. In the end, the applause starts, a tear falls on him, we witness the completion of an emotional journey and touching reflection (we also laugh a lot), in which the star looks inside himself, perhaps for the first time, thinking back to the consequences (even the manager will do the same) and your personal choices. Clooney (at least in Venice) won’t be able to confirm it for now, but this film perhaps left a different mark on him.
Author capable of moving with ease between sophisticated comedy and intimate drama, Noah Baumbach returns to Venice after the success of The Story of a Wedding. With Jay Kelly, it addresses a theme that runs through much of his filmography: the fragility of identity and the trade-offs of adult existence. The film presents itself as a road movie with an international scope, set between Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States, which becomes a mirror of the protagonists’ anxieties and a metaphor for a search for meaning in a constantly changing world. Thematically, Jay Kelly addresses universal issues: the confrontation with aging, the obsession with celebrity, the guilt of missed choices, and the desire for redemption. It is a work that speaks not only to the cinema audience, but also to the cinema itself, reflecting on the relationship between icon and person, between public image and private identity. Baumbach thus confirms his vocation for a cinema of words and emotion, capable of touching intimate chords without giving up an ironic and at times ruthless gaze.
The presence of Unsettled Clooney in the main role is undoubtedly the element more attractive than the film. The actor puts the service of the party his usual charisma, holding up much of the scene alone. His interpretation has the elegance that is expected, but just this predictability becomes a limitation: Clooney is perfect for embodying the tormented, but perhaps too perfect, hit star to really surprise. Next to him, we find Adam Sandler as Manager Ron. A character which, at least on paper, could offer an interesting counterpoint: the point of view of those who experience fame does not give the protagonist but a figure “satellite”, necessary but invisible. Unfortunately, the film doesn’t give him enough space: Sandler stays a sketchy supporting character, a shadow of what he could have been. A choice that deprives Jay Kelly of a new angle, giving up exploring the plus and ambivalent side of the relationship between star and entourage.
The ending of the film it embraces a conciliatory vision: after all, it seems to tell us Baumbach, sacrificing part of private life in the name of art and the ability to excite the public is a price it can be worth the penalty is to pay. It is a message that sounds reassuring and that, if from one side, can touch sincere strings, and on the other risks playing counterpoise. More than a real budget biter, Jay Kelly chooses to close with a note of benevolence towards the protagonist and towards the industry itself. Un an act of faith in cinema, of course, but which reduces the complexity of initial speech to an edifying formula. The film seems then contact those looking for confirmation more than those who want to question themselves.
Jay Kelly appears like a more accommodating Baumbach. If previous works like Marriage Story, they could dig into the human contradictions with clarity and pain, here we find ourselves faced with a polished product, designed for pleasure without bumps. Not surprisingly, the work recalls for atmospheres and ambitions the series The Studio of Apple TV+, with whom he shares the idea of behind the scenes of cinema without the tendency to actually scratch. It’s a flowing film, pleasant, and he will certainly find his audience, but it is unlikely to remain among the director’s most memorable works. Ben packaged, yes, but also too tied to already known formulas, Jay Kelly risks being remembered more like a missed opportunity rather than an essential chapter of Baumbach’s career.
Jay Kelly Movie Review (Venice Film Festival 2025): The Last Words
Jay Kelly is an intimate and melancholy work, which Baumbach directs with sobriety and lucidity, leaving the silences and faces to tell. Clooney gives one of the most mature performances of his career, returning as a man who sacrificed everything to stardom without ever really getting to know each other. Alongside him, Sandler surprises with intensity and delicacy, embodying the faithfulness of those who lived in the shadow of a myth. The film thus becomes a universal reflection on identity, the sense of memories, and the subtle border between life and representation. Convinces and excites Jay Kelly of Netflix. Noah Baumbach confirms his ability both in writing a brilliant and emotional screenplay and in staging that manages to welcome the viewer into the narrative world of the film. George Clooney is perfect in the title role, but the supporting actors, led by Adam Sandler and Laura Dern, do not look out of place alongside him. It’s a shame for an Italy that is a little too “postcard” in the Italian segment, but nothing that ruins the experience and the emotion.
Cast: George 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, Nicôle Lecky, Thaddea Graham, Isla Fisher
Directed By: Noah Baumbach
Where We Watched: At the Venice Film Festival 2025
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 3.5/5 (three and a half stars)
