Venice 2025: Noah Baumbach’s ‘Jay Kelly’ with Clooney & Sandler
by Tamara Khodova
August 31, 2025
For American director Noah Baumbach, returning to the Venice Film Festival must feel like coming back to the scene of a crime. Three years ago, he opened the fest with his apocalyptic drama White Noise, which was savaged by festival crowds. By the director’s own admission, the experience was so traumatic he lost his faith in cinema. He credits two things with restoring it: working on the screenplay for Barbie with his wife, Greta Gerwig, and a new collaboration with actress Emily Mortimer, with whom he co-wrote his new film titled Jay Kelly. The movie follows Hollywood star Jay Kelly (starring George Clooney as the famous actor), who, after an encounter with an old friend, is prompted to reconsider his life choices. He abruptly decides to end his acting career and takes off for Europe, where he hopes to find his younger daughter and mend their relationship, having failed to do so with his older daughter (Riley Keough). So he brings his entire entourage along for the ride, including hairdresser, publicist (Laura Dern), and his loyal manager (Adam Sandler), who follows his beloved client everywhere he goes, even at the expense of his own family.
Baumbach is clearly exorcising some demons, and he’s brought all his friends along. Much like in a Wes Anderson film, Jay Kelly features a cast of the director’s famous acquaintances, with Greta Gerwig, Isla Fisher, and Jim Broadbent all making cameo appearances. The result feels less like a movie and more like a group therapy session. And yet, considering the state of the world—and cinema in particular—perhaps a little mutual support is no bad thing, even if it’s fleeting. Still, one can’t help feel the director has lost his incisive edge, trading his signature blend of pessimism & absurdity for a dose of unchecked sentimentality.
Jay Kelly opens with a gorgeous long take on the set of Kelly’s latest film. A scene buzzing with the focused chaos of a real shoot: the gossip, calls home, endless retakes—everything that comes with the filmmaking process, or at least our idea of it. Baumbach isn’t reinventing the wheel. His new film fits neatly alongside other recent movies about the magic of cinema like: Babylon, The Fabelmans, The Artist, and Hail, Caesar!. The director speaks of that famous movie magic, which, as it turns out, really does exist. Why else would millions of people lose themselves in front of screens, big & small, every single day, falling in love with everyone involved in this mystical process? But as the film shows, the process isn’t mystical at all. It’s dirty work, demanding total commitment, betrayal, lies, and profound loneliness. Again, that’s nothing new, but Baumbach & Mortimer pepper the story with the director’s signature snappy dialogue and comedic timing.
As the film wisely notes, it’s hard these days to get audiences invested in the struggles of an aging white man (though plenty of directors keep trying). George Clooney seems to be playing himself—it’s no coincidence his initials are a phonetic parody of the character’s. But then again, who really knows who George Clooney is? As the film suggests, an actor is never just himself. It’s an image built on another image, masked by many illusions. Sometimes, “playing yourself”—or rather, finding your true self within—is the hardest role of all.
It helps that Clooney is the quintessential movie star, with his dazzling smile, deep voice, and sharp suits. He’s in constant performance mode, effortlessly charming the world while alienating those closest to him. But the film’s emotional core isn’t the selfish, albeit lost, Kelly. It’s his manager, played by a heartbreakingly sad Adam Sandler. We haven’t seen the actor this melancholy since Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch-Drunk Love. He’s the one truly trapped in a toxic relationship, the kind you need to flee without a second thought.
Perhaps judging Jay Kelly as a film is missing the point entirely. It’s less a movie, much more of a public conversation Baumbach is having with himself. Even if you fall under its spell, all the allure vanishes the moment the lights come up. Throughout the film, Baumbach seems to be wrestling with the very question that haunts so many artists: why endure the agony of creation? After all, filmmakers and actors are famous for threatening retirement, only to inevitably return to the craft they can’t escape. The climax sees Kelly accepting a lifetime achievement award as a montage of his work—which is to say, Clooney’s actual films—lights up the screen. Watching it, mesmerized by that silver glow, the protagonist realizes that the magic is real. And in that moment, the “how”—all the sweat, blood, and compromise that went into creating all of this art—simply doesn’t matter, the magic is what lasts.
Tamara’s Venice 2025 Rating: 2.5 out of 5
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