George Clooney

Adam Sandler

Laura Dern

Billy Crudup

Riley Keough

Grace Edwards

Stacy Keach

Jim Broadbent

Patrick Wilson

Eve Hewson

Greta Gerwig

Alba Rohrwacher

Josh Hamilton

Lenny Henry

Emily Mortimer

Nicôle Lecky

Thaddea Graham

Isla Fisher

Stanley Townsend

Erica Sweany

Kevin Shen

David Neumann

Leila Farzad

Juliet Cowan

Eleanor Matsuura

Lucas Aurelio

Tuwaine Barrett

Martha West

Philip Arditti

Nigel Whitmey

Kyle Soller

Parker Sawyers

Giovanni Zeqireya

Doug Cockle

Sadie Sandler

Helene Maksoud

Dean Wareham

Ruthie Rogers

Josh Berger

Penny Mortimer

Christine Crais

Kwabena Peprah

Carlos Jacott

Eloise Jacott

John Macmillan

Andreas Muñoz

Lars Eidinger

Ferdi Stofmeel

Rosita Raffaelli

Antoinette Aaron

Philippe Spall

Nasser Memarzia

Christophe Guybet

Annabel Mullion

Federico Scribani

Francesco De Vito

Sharon Rooney

Hannah Onslow

Amber Mendez Martin

Janine Duvitski

Jamie Demetriou

Patsy Ferran

Pippo Crotti

Yinka Awoni

May Nivola

Théo Augier

Alex Jarrett

Alaïs Lawson

Cassius Hackforth

Emily Piggford

Danielle Lewis

Giovanni Esposito

Monica Nappo

Galatea Ranzi

Fabio Vannozzi

Arianna Becheroni

Lucian St Aubyn

Marco Conte

Donald Sabourin

Matilda Thorpe

Charlie Rowe

Louis Partridge

Ruby Stokes

Alastair Coughlan

Andrew Malik

Joe Hewetson

Max Beken

Tom Francis

Carly-Sophia Davies

Debora Weston

Martin McDougall

Kit Rakusen

Sadie Stallcup

Noah Baumbach

Phạm Quang Minh

Amy Pascal

David Heyman

Véronique Melery

Mark Tildesley

Linus Sandgren

Chris Peters

Ben Collins

Valerio Bonelli

Ben Wright

David Simpson

Rachel Durance

Douglas Aibel

Nina Gold

David Sinfield

Chris Scarabosio

Andy Madden

Oliver Fergusson-Taylor

Ivana Primorac

Nicholas Britell

Jacqueline Durran

George Drakoulias

Robert Madden

Madeline Donahue

Rod McLean

Luke Sanders

Arwel Evans

Michael Pybus

Jordan Muir

Dimitris Giannetos

Ann Pala

Samantha Kininmonth

Niall Monteith-Mann

Carmel Jackson

Jade Levene-Endfield

Cheryl Garvey

Suzanne David

Joseph Koniak

Annabelle McMahon

Ricci-Lee Berry

Nina Rice

Gordon Cave

Martin Ware

Matthew Glasner

Marlow Warrington-Mattei

Lorenzo De Nicola

Giacomo Scortichini

Briseide Siciliano

Alessandro Santucci

Alessio Bramucci

Emiliano Leurini

Alejandro Chávez

Carlotta Simula

Alessio Bastianelli

Domingo Santoro

Francesca Iamundo

Francesca Scalera

Simone Liardo

Mirella Conte

Raffaella Iorio

Clarissa Antinori

Silvia Beltrani

Glenda La Rocca

Giulia Maran

Lidia Minì

Daniel Acon

Tim Moen

Meg Everist

Tony Bryan

Jennifer Durban

Clare M. Corsick

Robert Sharman

Melissa Malkasian

Roma Goddard

Lucia Mace

Paul Schmitz

Maha

Jennifer Zide

Corina C. Duran-Rabichuk

Raqueli Dahan

Akiko Matsumoto

Eleanor Sabaduquia

Paul Eliopoulos

Marie d'Hallivillée

Gregoire Thevenot

Quentin Jorquera

Bastien Planchenault

Roberto Gentili

Alessandro Trapani

Rowan Watson

Drama

Comedy

Jay Kelly

Pascal Pictures

Heyday Films

NB/GG Pictures

United States of America

United Kingdom

Manuel São Bento

FULL SPOILER-FREE REVIEW @ https://fandomwire.com/jay-kelly-review/

"Jay Kelly is a dense and unforgettable drama from Noah Baumbach, where George Clooney's inspired performance reaches a peak of vulnerability, giving life to a man trapped between professional success and personal emptiness.

It's a thematically rich story about the tyranny of memory and the high cost of ambition, questioning whether success compensates for lost bonds. With directing, editing, cinematography, and score that transform dialogue into pure intimacy and organically link the past and present, the film is technically and emotionally superb, rejecting the convenient ending in favor of life's bittersweet truth.

The only way forward is ahead, learning to love the story that, by choice, became our own."

Rating: A

Brent Marchant

Those familiar with my writing are likely well aware that I have often said the cardinal sin in moviemaking is predictability (why see a film if you already know what’s going to happen?). On the heels of that belief, my second biggest cardinal sin in this field is a lack of originality (to a great degree because predictability often walks hand in hand with this shortcoming). And, unfortunately, those are the problems that sink this latest effort from writer-director Noah Baumbach. In a nutshell, this offering tells the story of its self-important title character (George Clooney), a successful but aging movie star who’s beginning to realize that his life has slipped away from him, leaving him with a pile of professional and personal regrets, many of which involved burning some significant bridges. Through a series of flashbacks (and a whole lot of vacuous hand wringing that’s quickly and easily dismissed), he sees – perhaps for the first time – how he’s squandered much of his time and alienated many kindreds, leaving him feeling fundamentally empty. (Now there’s a novel idea for a story – a pampered, self-absorbed LA celebrity who experiences a midlife (or, in this case, a late life) crisis and goes into meltdown mode to haplessly search for “meaning.”) But haven’t we already seen this storyline play out countless times before in other releases, such as “All That Jazz” (1979), “Stardust Memories” (1980) (and the film it’s based on, “8½” (1963)), “Bardo” (2022) and “Birdman” (2014), to name only a few. So what does “Jay Kelly” offer that’s new to this narrative? Frankly, nothing. And, to make matters worse, it doesn’t even traverse this well-worn ground very effectively (all of the aforementioned predecessors having done a much better job at this). There’s little to like about – or even empathize with – any of the characters in this story, leaving viewers to sigh a big “So what?” Even the protagonist is unengaging, coming across as an amalgamation of his (i.e., in essence, Clooney’s) on-screen personas. The effect of this is shamelessly self-congratulatory that essentially plays like a reel of the actor’s greatest hits, set against a backdrop of superficiality and relentlessly obtrusive product placement (again, so what?). In fact, the most interesting players in this production are the supporting characters, such as an old acting school colleague (Billy Crudup) and the director who gave Kelly his start (Jim Broadbent). Regrettably, though, these characters are relegated to comparatively small roles with little screen time. The supporting character who receives the lion’s share of such attention is Kelly’s manager (Adam Sandler), a wholly uninteresting, inconsequential cast member who could have been easily eliminated without losing a thing. In short, this whole affair is so shallow and so LA-clichéd that it’s difficult to care about any of it in the slightest, all the while trying to pass itself off as something sublimely profound. (Yawn.) Sadly, this vehicle is a waste of Clooney’s and Baumbach’s considerable talents. Both are better than what they’ve produced here. Indeed, if there’s genuine tragedy to be had in this effort, their derivative, uninspired creative output on this project would undoubtedly be it.