Jay Kelly 2025

George Clooney is a marvelous movie star, and his latest screen character Jay Kelly is also a marvelous movie star. Both star in Noah Baumbach's good and mostly moving movie on Hollywood and the toll it takes on the stars and people who work there. Jay Kelly is a popular high end star in the mold and mood of some of the great male stars of the golden years who Jay adores and holds in high regard, Cooper, Gable, Grant as he names them in hushed reverence. Baumbach who is a director of stories about relationships knows his film history and what went before him. It's in this sub genre of Hollywood lore that he tells us his story of Jay Kelly.

There is a long history of movies about the making of movies in Hollywood going back to the early days of sound and includes many classics including “What Price Hollywood” , “Singin In The Rain”, “A Star is Born” (the Cukor Garland version and “The Bad and The Beautiful” to name just a few. The last film dealing with the ins and outs of Hollywood, the one that immediately comes to mind is Robert Altman's “The Player” which looms large over Jay Kelly in approach, technique and form. There is no murder mystery in Jay Kelly but there are the deaths of souls and relationships throughout. Baumbech opens his Hollywood fable large and loud, a film has just finished shooting with its star Jay Kelly burnt out and exhausted. He's mulling over the idea of this will be his last film after 35 years of stardom. Baumbach moves his cast and crew all over the large set, he knows his stuff and its a fascinating (for me anyway) to watch how a movie might be made. There are several plot threads running here, one is that Jay is due to go to Italy where they are having a large tribute for his career, and he's up and down on this idea. No he won't go, cancel it, then yes he will go and his large and loyal entrouge led by his manager and close friend Ron played in Oscar winning fashion by Adam Sandler, an at first unrecognizable Laura Dern as his grouchy publicist and Emily Mortimer who co wrote the screenplay as his hairdresser along with several others who come and go like a Santa Ana wind.

Jay lives in a late very large modern sleek house (its quite the set) alone in the Hollywood hills and is left to his personal failures mainly having to do with his two estranged daughters there is no mention of a former wife, or any real deep romantic relationships and his memories are played back for us in conversations that Jay has with his ghosts that Baumbach brings to life in sharp focus and strong visual movie make believe.

Yes his daughters, both are hurt by the supposed neglect he gave them growing up, and the younger one is more ok with her estranged relationship with him than his older daughter who is a bitter pill, both are no prizes to be sure. Some of his encounters with them are real and others are imagined and these are for me the dullest parts of the film. But as some playwright once said attention must be paid, and Baumbech who is a strong supporter of damaged and conflicted families gives us a dose of attention. There is also a bitter reunion in Italy with Jay's problematic aging father wonderfully acted by Stacy Keach who Jay has flown in for his tribute but leaves soon after arriving.

As I mentioned Baumbach influences are many and varied from Robert Altman to Fellini who hovers over the last part of the film that takes place in Italy like a giant Thanksgiving day balloon. It's here in Italy that Jay has his mea culpa coming to grips with his failures, faults and gifts mostly as he watches the film tribute to his career which uses actual footage and clips from Clooney's impressive career and the film ends with a deep close up of Clooney who addresses us with the line “can we go again? I'd like another one”. Make of it what you will. Also in the very good cast is Alba Rohrwacher, Greta Gerwig, Jim Broadbent and Billy Crudup. So far one of the ten best films of 2025.