Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke
I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) if they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative. However, due to COVID concerns I’m mostly addressing streaming options with limited visits to theaters, where I don’t think I’ve missed much anyway, but better options are on the horizon. (Note: Anything in bold blue below [or near purple] is a link to something in the above title or the review.)
My reviews’ premise: “You can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.”
(from "Garden Party" by Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band, 1972 album of the song’s name)
Jay Kelly (Noah Baumbach) rated R 132 min.
Here’s the trailer:
(Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge its size;
activate the same button or use “esc” keyboard key to return to normal.)
If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $ (as well as recognizing those readers like me who just aren’t that tech-savvy). To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid these all-important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters with colors plus arrows:
⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.
WHAT HAPPENS: Famous Hollywood movie star Jay Kelly (George Clooney) has just completed his current project (last scene from it shown in the trailer above where he asks for one more take, but his director sees no need), is scheduled to start another one soon, but wants to back out in order to spend the summer with daughter Daisy (Grace Edwards) before she’s off to college in the fall; however, 2 situations impede on his hopes: (1) Daisy’s somewhat distant from him, doesn’t want to spend summer at home, has already made plans for a trip to Europe with a small group of friends; (2) Jay gets news the director, Peter Schneider (Jim Broadbent), who launched Jay’s career years ago, has died even as Jay recently refused Peter’s request to help with financing a new movie. Things then get worse when at Peter’s funeral Jay meets up with long-ago acting school roommate, Tim Galligan (Billy Crudup). They go for drinks, but the night turns bad as Tim’s still angry that Jay won a part at an audition with Peter Jay hoped to get, then later Jay hooked up with Tim’s girlfriend (who, as I understand it, became Jay’s wife before she left him after he had an affair with a co-star). Outside the bar Tim starts a fight, leaving Jay with a black eye, more damage to Tim who files a massive assault lawsuit against Jay. Jay still wants to forego his new movie, even as manager Ron Sukernick (Adam Sandler) insists he not do this; instead Jay gathers up his entourage, including Ron and publicist Liz (Laura Dern), to fly on his private jet to Paris (Meg [Thaddea Graham], Jay’s assistant, tracks Daisy by hacking into her friend’s mother’s credit card to see where the girls are), supposedly to accept a lifetime-achievement award in Tuscany, Italy which Jay had already refused, so Ron arranged for another client, Ben Alcock (Patrick Wilson), to get the tribute, now has to ask the awarding society to honor both actors. Jay meets up with Daisy on the train she’s taking to Italy; she declines coming to his award-fest in order to keep traveling with her friends.
A lot more plot continues to rumble along here, including ⇒a man stealing a woman’s purse on the train with Jay turning to action-movie mode as he chases, catches the thief; a flashback of Jay visiting his older daughter, Jessica (Riley Keough), in San Diego where she wants him to come to a therapy session with her regarding his absence from his family in favor of always being off extending his career (in Tuscany he phones her to come join him; she refuses); Liz is tired of helping bail out Jay from his problems so she leaves; Ron’s having home conflicts similar to Jay’s history so he intends to leave but Jay convinces him to stay for the ceremony (which furthers their bond but likely doesn’t help Ron’s home situation much); Ron invites Jay’s estranged father (Stacy Keach) to come to Tuscany, although he has a dizzy spell, decides to return to Maine even as Jay begs him to stay; Ben fires Ron as he feels this manager devotes too much time/energy to Jay. As all of this activity wraps up (I’m a bit pressed for time this week for more plot details right now, including how you’d also find actors such as Greta Gerwig, Emily Mortimer, and Ilsa Fisher in this story; if you want to know more please consult this site and this one [Spoilers in both of them]) we end with a standing ovation for Jay at his ceremony where, as with the opening scene, he asks to the camera “Can I go again? I’d like another one,” but this time it’s not about a take for a movie but another shot at living a better life where he doesn’t disappoint/drive away those closest to him (except for ever-loyal Ron).⇐
SO WHAT? As I noted in my recent posting about Train Dreams (Clint Bentlyl) and A House of Dynamite (Kathryn Bigelow), I’ve found myself unusually busy recently for an old (soon to be 78) retired guy so I’ve had to budget my time (and self-allotted space) for these reviews, including this one so I’m going to let a few of my colleagues speak for me regarding what I liked (and some of them not so much) about Jay Kelly, beginning with Michael Andor Brodeur of The Washington Post (who gave it 3 of 4 stars, or 75% in Metacritic terms [this is close numerically to my 4 of 5 stars, 80%, but, then, I rarely go above 4 so any way you slice it I still responded it a bit more in a supportive manner than he did]): ”There’s a lot to like about ‘Jay Kelly,’ the unexpectedly sweet new film from director Noah Baumbach. It’s beautifully shot, bustles with strong performances by a roundly endearing cast and indulges in an old-Hollywood elegance well-suited to its story: the late-life crisis of its titular megastar, played — embodied, really — by George Clooney. […] But ‘Jay Kelly’ feels like more than an elaborate meta-gimmick or a well-appointed character study. It’s a film about the uses (and abuses) of artifice: from Ron darkening Jay’s eyebrows with a Sharpie, to Jay playing at being a family man on a film set.” But, to acknowledge those not so thrilled with this film I’ll turn to Kimberly Jones of The Austin Chronicle (in my long-ago TX hometown) who says (in MC terms, 50%): “[…] Netflix has written some very big checks to indie artists like Noah Baumbach who otherwise surely would have struggled to finance their films. But the irony is thick: In most of the country, this rueful paean to Hollywood, which ends in the dark of a movie theatre, will be experienced from the modesty of the living room couch. […] The familiar faces inject instant warmth, but I’m not sure it’s entirely earned. By the time Jay Kelly arrived at its last line – buffed to a bland sheen, as if the whole film was reverse-engineered to land there – I had cooled considerably.” Well, as the Rolling Stones have often said: "You can't always get what you want" (in life or on screen).
Truly, though, what I felt about this film is more akin to the opinions of Mick LaSalle of The San Francisco Chronicle (relatively speaking, my new hometown in the larger SF Bay Area, at MC’s 100% [although that would be 5 stars for me, a rare rating unless you’re in The Godfather realm {Francis Ford Coppola; 1972, 1974, 1990, 2020} of such superb, enduring cinematic triumph]): ” ‘Jay Kelly’ is Baumbach’s best film and, from an artistic standpoint, his first complete success. […] Almost invariably, his point of view, disguised by a veneer of easy glibness, ls that if you’re not a wealthy and successful artist, you might as well be dead. His has been a reductive vision, but in ‘Jay Kelly,’ he has finally found a protagonist he can respect, rather than pity. [¶] Clooney finds the humanity in Jay and brings it out in the director.” It’s clear to me (and I hope to you as well) that I found Jay Kelly to be a marvelous exploration of how the need to make a life for yourself that you can finally feel satisfied with can also give you unexpected negative results in the privacy of your situation that remains unknown to those who adore your public persona. Clooney does a noteworthy job of conveying that, with excellent support from the rest of the cast, especially Sandler who successfully shows himself to be trapped in the same dilemma, with both of them wanting to be better men away from their jobs but constantly lured back to the rich-heights of well-known success.
BOTTOM LINE FINAL COMMENTS: Given this film is a Netflix production I have no info on how many domestic (U.S.-Canada) theaters it opened in on November 14, 2025, how many of them it might still be in (although a couple of them are in my greater San Francisco area), nor how much income it may have generated. (Yet, they’re willing to spend $72 billion to buy Warner Bros. Discovery—if that deal goes through [and, no, even though I’ve recently done reviews of Netflix product that choice had nothing to do with any recent purchases of Netflix stock—which I haven’t done, and I’m glad I didn’t because their market value seems to have even decreased a bit since both Paramount and Trump have gotten into the act]—but they won’t say how much gross their releases have at the theaters, probably because these show dates are really just to meet Oscar exhibition requirements when awards considerations come around in early 2026, not to compete for box-office bragging rights). Anyway, it’s obvious by now that if you want to see this film—and I strongly hope you do—your best option is streaming, free for Netflix subscribers (or you could invest $7.99 for a month’s exploration into their vast library, although that price comes with ads; $17.99 for ad-free), The CCAL’s not quite as supportive as I am, though, with the Rotten Tomatoes positive reviews at a (merely) respectable 76% while the Metacritic average score is (predictably) lower at 67%, but who ya gonna listen to: a bunch of overpaid snobs or a guy who doesn’t make a cent for writing these blog reviews yet obviously has unparalleled insights into those complicated filmic arts?
Well, good choice on your part (It was me, wasn’t it?) so I wish you happy viewing of Jay Kelly; while you’re locating it, though, let me offer my usual wrap-up device of a Musical Metaphor, this time 2 of them to address different aspects of what this film’s exploring. First we have Joni Mitchell’s “The Arrangement” (on her 1970 Ladies of the Canyon album) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHNYPBoiEu4&list=RDfHNYPBoiEu4 where Jay, and many in his family and inner-circle could seriously agree: “You could have been more / Than a name on the door / On the thirty-third floor in the air / More than a credit card / Swimming pool in the backyard.” Then, there’s “Act Naturally” (written by Johnny Russell with a writer’s credit also to Voni Morrison, publishing rights to Buck Owens who had a #1 hit with it in 1963) by The Beatles at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uo29BMmUMo0&list=RDuo29BMmUMo0&start_radio=1 (on their 1965 U.K. Help!, 1966 U.S. Yesterday and Today albums) where Jay could take a more whimsical look at himself: “We’ll make a film about a man who’s sad and lonely / And all I gotta do is act naturally […] The movies gonna make me a big star / ‘Cause I can play the part so well.” Happy watching/listening to any/all of these.
SHORT TAKES
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