CLOONEY. . .WHO ELSE?

A journey of self-discovery that ends in blankness

George Clooney is glamorous and charming in the unchallenging role of an aging Hollywood star in this new picture from Noah Baumbach, who has been much more successful in almost everything else - think White Noise, Marriage Story, The Meyrowitz Stories; and his co-authorship of Barbie and Francis Ha and Fabulous Mr. Fox. It's baffling how sentimental and saccharine is Jay Kelly, a movie that runs over the movie self-questioning territory of Fellini's 8 1/2, without achieving its style and class (though in truth I now find 8 1/2 intolerably slow as well).

George Clooney is an aging Hollywood movie star here who starts questioning his obsession with success and resulting neglect of his two daughters (Riley Keough and Grace Edwards) during their (now past) formative years at a Tuscan awards ceremony. In an early scene, when Jay is still rejecting the idea of an award, he runs into his friend Timothy (Billy Crudup), his fellow student in acting school, from whom he stole a role - with Timothy's acting career ending thereafter, so now he's a child therapist. He was so good back then he could make any reading dramatic and Jay gets him to do his schtick on the menu where they are, and for us.

A bit later they come to blows in a truncated scene when Timothy owns up that in fact he has always hated Jay and found him selfish. Jay emerges with a black eye but reportedly Timothy gets a broken nose and possible disfigurement so Jay's going to get sued for millions. This seems meant to be a vivid incident but it's muffled. Ultimately it's impossible to care about anything in this busy, noisy movie except when it will end, which if you're anything like me, is nowhere soon enough.

With its "important" cinematic topic and high profile star this film got attention at Venice but the European audience rejected it. Will America like it anyway, given the love for George Clooney and indulgence toward rose-colored depictions of European settings? It's really a misfire for Noah Baumbach, who started and has been at his best as a New York director who reveled in New York Jewish specificity, though he has done some excellent writing outside that limited sphere. He has been to Hollywood, okay, but should he try to be its chronicler? Baumbach's Jay Kelly is a vague image of glamor lacking even the charm of Clooney's "Nespresso. . . What else?" ads. We try to come up with notable roles and Michael Clayton (2007) or Ocean's Eleven (2001) come to mind. Has the actor overall spent more time being glamorous than acting? Even though Mastroianni's Weltschmerz was a pompous bore, he had it to give Fellini's 8 1/2 weight. Clooney to do him credit manages a smidgen of harshness and anger here, but no Weltschmerz.

Perhaps I'm asking too much and Clooney works for you, if he does, because as Brian Tallerico claims, he is worthy of evoking great stars like Mastroianni or Paul Newman or the iconic leading men - Gable, Grant, Peck - whom Jay himself speaks the names of looking in a mirror. You can't claim Noah Baumbach can double for Fellini, though. Baumbach's Europe remains a naive American cliché, his Paris the Eiffel Tower, his Italy sunshine and cypresses and a landscape reminding Jay's father (Stacy Keach), brought in for the award event, of Bakersfield, California, where, he mentions, a lot of people are out of work.

Why does Keach's character mention Bakersfield? Baumbach throws all these lines at us with no clear sense of what matters. His Altmanesque overlapping dialogue effects a lot of time just come off noisy and chaotic - though they do convey that Jay Kelly is surrounded by people all the time but essentially alone. Baumbach may be working to achieve fast-talking dialogue out of an old HOllywood movie, but that old Hollywood dialogue had a quickness and wit that are quite lacking here. Instead we get annoying, unappealing daughters and a tedious recurring joke about cheese cake Jay no longer likes but keeps getting served a piece of wherever he goes.

For Adam Sandler, who has been so solid lately, this is unfortunately no Uncut Gems.. He simply seems annoying as Jay Kelly's nagging, persistent manager who's always there for him except where he isn't. There's no resonance behind the facade of his role, either.

I admit the image this movie proposes to us is a strong and memorable one: George Clooney makes the perfect glamorous, self-doubting movie star photographed looming tanned in a white sout in front of a monumental younger image of himself in his prime. And of course the clips can roll with real Clooney roles standing in for Kelly ones. But it seems Baumbach is a director not of images but of talk, and the talk isn't right here. It is only a lot of chatter that never gets to the point except to ask us to cry for somebody there's no reason to care about.

Though the critical rating is mediocre there is a lot of polite praise and a few Metacritic 100's at the top . Does this foreshadow that the awards people - who aren't the same as the critics - will rise to celebrate this film and its star after all? Mr. Clooney says he doesn't care.

Jay Kelly, 132 mins., premiered at Venice Aug. 28, 2025, showing also at over a dozen international festivals including Telluride, Busan; San Sebastián, New York, Woodstock, BFI London, São Paulo, AFI, Stockholm and Taipei. US limited release from Nov. 14, 2025, with a Netflix release Dec. 5. Nov. 24: Lincoln Center announced e Clooney to receive the Chaplin Award for lifetime achievement Apr. 27, 2026 (after the Oscars). Metacritic rating: 66%.

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©Chris Knipp. Blog: http://chrisknipp.blogspot.com/.