Writers: Noah Baumbach and Emily Mortimer
Director: Noah Baumbach
What must it be like to be one of the most famous movie stars in the world? Does the world-wide adoration make up for the sacrifices you have to make to build and sustain a career; will there come a point where they ask, was any of it worth it? That question is at the heart of Noah Baumbach and Emily Mortimer’s new film Jay Kelly, starring George Clooney and many will search the film for clues that art is imitating life for one of America’s most beloved A-listers. Whatever hidden depths you want to read into Jay Kelly, Clooney is game enough to explore what it means to achieve real fame, the collective and unappreciated work that goes into every celebrity name and the weighty regrets about the life his character could have had instead.
Deciding to abandon his latest film a week before shooting, mega-star Jay Kelly pursues his youngest daughter to Italy where she wants to spend the summer inter-railing. Suddenly overcome by memories of his path to fame, Jay encounters old friends along the way continually recasting the past to understand the man he has become. Accompanied by agent Ron who has organised a tribute evening, Jay starts to wonder who he became and what happened to the promising young man he once was.
Baumbach and Mortimer lean into Hollywood’s love affair with itself, the dizzying hall of mirrors reflecting back distorted perspectives of showbusiness again and again. And they establish Jay’s stellar career with a swooping shot through a film studio where the actor is giving his latest great performance, the scene succinctly captures the huge industry of support behind the camera that underpins movie making. And it is the intersection of these two angles that underpins the story, exploring the team effort that is the man Jay Kelly and the different kinds of self-absorption that prevent Jay from really seeing it, an actor who always wants one more take – something he is repeatedly, and eventually meaningfully, denied.
Anchored by a knowing but very available performance from Clooney, the audience arrive at the moment the character essentially wakes from a daze. His team – including the excellent Adam Sandler as Ron and Laura Dearn’s Liz – believe it’s a midlife crisis but Clooney’s performance suggests something closer to self-realisation as Jay questions how real his life is and what a series of film performances actually amounts to. It’s clear he both loves the fame and takes it for granted, determined to be this person since his first audition, so is his sudden attempt to connect with the daughters who he deprioritised a genuine attempt to repair the damage of a lost life or a momentary crisis that he will soon forget? Clooney keeps you guessing but finds both comedy and a moving tinge of tragedy in Kelly’s confrontation with his real and celluloid self.
And throughout Baumbach sews in some impressive but subtle cameo performances from a raft of equally talented performers. Jay’s existential crisis is prompted by a drink with an old friend played by Billy Crudup, Patrick Wilson pops in as fellow actor who got the family balance right while Jim Broadbent offers sage advice. Theatre fans will recognise both Patsy Ferran and Kyle Soller who both have dialogue with Clooney adding another layer of meaning to the journey of rising stars meeting and then becoming their heroes.
Jay Kelly meanders a little towards the end with an unnecessary spot of heroism that feels too dreamlike, the core female roles depart too soon and there are some cliched devices including the stepping back into memories and characters dramatising phone calls as though they are really together, yet the film has much to say about the high price of fame when the movie ends leaving its star with no one but their big name for company.
Jay Kelly is screening at the BFI London Film Festival 2025 from 8-19 October.
