Sandler shines but Clooney coats in "Jay Kelly"

Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly is the kind of film that sounds pitch-perfect on paper: an aging movie star looking back at a life of triumphs and failures, accompanied by the one person who knows him better than he knows himself. Baumbach has lived in this territory for decades—fragile egos, frayed families, people trapped between who they were and whom they pretend to be. But Jay Kelly never quite finds the emotional charge it keeps hinting at, even with a stacked cast and a premise custom-built for introspection.

George Clooney plays the title role, and the film asks him to peel back the gloss, to show the cracks, the insecurities, the moments where fame becomes a mirror too honest to look into. Unfortunately, Clooney keeps the armor on. He hits the beats, but the performance feels like he’s skimming the surface instead of diving in. There’s a distance in his work here—polished, charming, but never vulnerable enough to make Jay’s journey land the way Baumbach clearly intends.

And then there’s Adam Sandler.

Sandler plays Ron, Jay’s longtime manager, minder, fixer, and—let’s be honest—the closest thing this man has to a real friend. Sandler doesn’t oversell the role or suddenly transform into a different actor; he plays Ron with honesty. There’s warmth, exasperation, loyalty, and a lived-in history between these two men that the film desperately needs. Whenever Sandler is on screen, Jay Kelly steadies itself. Whenever he’s not, the film drifts.

Baumbach fills the world around them with an embarrassment of talent—Laura Dern, Billy Crudup, Riley Keough, Emily Mortimer, Patrick Wilson, Greta Gerwig, Jim Broadbent, Eve Hewson, Stacy Keach, Alba Rohrwacher, Lenny Henry, Josh Hamilton, and more. Some appear long enough to spark something interesting; others vanish just as quickly. It feels less like an ensemble and more like a relay race, each actor delivering one emotional handoff before jogging off camera.

There are moments when the film clicks: a tense argument that cuts deeper than the characters will admit, a late-night conversation that almost gets Jay to confront who he’s become, small glimmers of the emotional clarity Baumbach usually lands with ease. But the film never builds momentum. It sits in place, circling the same questions—What does success mean? What does regret feel like? What happens when the applause stops?—without pushing Jay or Clooney far enough to make the answers matter.

In fairness, Jay Kelly is not a disaster. It’s handsomely made, thoughtfully structured, and filled with actors who know how to hit their marks. But it’s hard to shake the feeling that the movie is waiting for Clooney to unlock a version of Jay that never arrives. Sandler finds his way in; Clooney stays on the outside looking in.

The result is a pleasant film, occasionally sharp, occasionally touching, but never quite alive. A movie about self-discovery in which the lead character never truly lets himself be seen.

Sandler does his job. Baumbach mostly does his. Clooney, for once, is the one phoning it in.

And that’s the real tragedy, because Jay Kelly could’ve been something special if its star had actually shown up ready to do the work.

Final Grade: B-

“Jay Kelly” is now available to stream on Netflix.