by Samuel Nichols, Contributing Writer
I am not the biggest fan of writer/director Noah Baumbach. The man has made some critically beloved movies over the years, but he just gives me the ick. If you go on his Wikipedia page, you’ll see points in his life that are obvious inspirations for his work. The Squid and the Whale was inspired by his own parents’ divorce. His friend and college roommate Jason Blum produced Baumbach’s early adulthood comedy (if you can even call it that) Kicking and Screaming about young people leaving college and entering the next stage of life. Made during the end of Baumbach’s first marriage, Frances Ha follows Baumbach’s future wife Greta Gerwig as she dances through the later years of her 20s. 2019’s Netflix movie Marriage Story was written in the years after Baumbach parted with his first wife Jennifer Jason Leigh. You starting to see a pattern?
Now we come to 2025’s Jay Kelly. Starring George Clooney in the titular role of an A-list movie star in his greying years, Kelly himself is coming to grips with the realization of how much he sacrificed to have such a gargantuan career. His crisis of faith happens in the midst of a trip to Europe for a career celebration. Knowing time with his kids Jessica (Riley Keough) and Daisy (Grace Edwards) is more precious than his career, he plans to abandon his next project to spend more time with them. Seeing things slowly unraveling, Kelly’s manager Ron (Adam Sandler) is by his side trying to help the movie star on the tracks.
Hey! Look at that! Baumbach is in his 50s and on his second marriage, and probably staring down the back half of his life wondering about how he spent his time. Shocker — he seems to have pulled this script straight from his own life again. Who could have seen that coming? His continued use of his own life story for source material is as transparent as glass. Lacking inspiration and originality, it’s clear how every character feels about their lives from the jump. Kelly feels desperate, his kids are conflicted about getting his attention, and Ron is just holding everything together as best as he can.
We know that Kelly is going to be conflicted. Of course he is proud of his life achievements and what he’s done. He should be. But leaving his family and daughters behind in the process surely left a large hole in his life where only loved ones can reside. He struggles with trying to fill that void now. I commend Clooney, because has his movie star charm on full display, as well as that lost-at-sea look as someone who doesn’t know how they’re gonna get back. His interactions with both Keough and Edwards are terrific, because one lets him be the regretful old man and the other still gives him hope for the years to come.
Sandler is almost never playing a mini-me of Kelly. When the superstar needs something, Ron provides. But he is a man who’s used to the struggle of leaving his family behind. So he is more worn out than shocked by the family plight. He’s a steadying force next to Jay. Sandler not being the funny guy, but the calm friend, is far outside of his usual M.O. We’ve seen him tone down the zaniness in recent years with movies like Hustle, but this is always a welcome move. Good work by him.
It’s not too hard to find the themes of sacrificing family life balance. And it would be relatively applicable to the common if it wasn’t coming from a story about a movie star. I have no context for how Tom Cruise or Zendaya live their lives — I don’t really think they’re relatable. Making your protagonist a global sensation will not make them relatable. Likable? Maybe. But that is not enough for the message that Baumbach’s pushing.
Being set in Italy does provide this movie with some lovely backgrounds to fall back on. Scenes of chaos around Jay chasing his daughters, and Ron working out how to make it happen, are broken up with the lovely landscape. Seeing an older country like Italy has a calming effect to the story. In a way it’s a nice metaphor against Kelly’s journey. On one hand, look at what we’ve accomplished; but on the other, we are still yearning for more. So consider that some begrudging props for Baumbach.
Before I tie this review off, I have to get back to my critique of the man here. He is in a similar place to where Kelly is supposed to be in this movie, so it makes sense he would write this kind of story. But I find it kind of funny that he’d think so much of his own career that he’d compare himself to an A+ star. Seriously, this man has never directed a movie that made more than $10,000,000 at the domestic box office. He has not won an Oscar — he’s only been nominated four times and one of those was for Greta Gerwig’s Barbie (that is the epitome of getting an A on a group project you did little work on). He clearly thinks a lot of himself if he’s pulling from his life experience as inspiration for Jay. Just like this movie thinks a little too much of itself.
Rating: High Side of Didn’t Like It
Jay Kelly is currently streaming on Netflix
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