“Jay Kelly,” Noah Baumbach‘s return to directing after “White Noise,” already has proven to be an awards contender. Of course, it helps that the feature will screen at NYFF 2025 after premiering at Venice, and studio Netflix has given the film a theatrical release just in time for the Oscars push. But what about the titular Jay Kelly himself?
The feature, whose elusive logline remains, centers on George Clooney‘s Jay Kelly, a fictional A-list movie star in his 60s who faces a personal reckoning when he travels to an Italian film festival to receive a tribute award. The synopsis reads: “The film follows famous movie actor Jay Kelly (Clooney) and his devoted manager Ron (Adam Sandler) as they embark on a whirlwind and unexpectedly profound journey through Europe. Along the way, both men are forced to confront the choices they’ve made, the relationships with their loved ones, and the legacies they’ll leave behind.”
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Baumbach cowrote the script with Emily Mortimer, who also stars. Sandler and Laura Dern are among the many Baumbach staples included in the ensemble; Baumbach’s partner Greta Gerwig acts in the film, too.
“Jay Kelly” is the fourth collaboration between Baumbach and Netflix, with “The Meyerowitz Stories” (which starred Sandler), “Marriage Story” (that’s what got Dern her Oscar), and “White Noise” (another Gerwig film) on the streamer. “Jay Kelly” also stars Billy Crudup, Grace Edwards, Stacy Keach, Riley Keough, Patrick Wilson, Nicôle Lecky, Thaddea Graham, Jim Broadbent, Eve Hewson, Alba Rohrwacher, Lenny Henry, and Josh Hamilton. “Jay Kelly” features a score from “Succession” composer Nicholas Britell. Linus Sandgren is the cinematographer.
David Heyman and Amy Pascal, who are now spearheading the James Bond franchise at Amazon MGM, are producing alongside Baumbach.
Clooney told Vanity Fair that the inferred meta-ness of “Jay Kelly” is in part why he wanted to take on the role. “When you’re an actor in my position, at my age, finding roles like this aren’t all that common,” Clooney said. “If you can’t make peace with aging, then you’ve got to get out of the business and just disappear. I’m now the guy that, when I go running after a bad guy, it’s funny — it’s not suspenseful. That’s OK. I embrace all of that.”
Clooney continued, “Do people say that I only play myself? I don’t give a shit. There aren’t that many guys in my age group that are allowed to do both broad comedies like ‘O Brother [Where Art Thou?]’ and then do ‘Michael Clayton’ or ‘Syriana’. So if that means I’m playing myself all the time, I don’t give a shit… Have you ever tried playing yourself? It’s hard to do. […] I’ve been the beneficiary of having my career not be massively successful in lots of different directions. I didn’t really get successful, in the kind of success that can be blinding, until I was 33 years old. I’d been working for 12 years at that point. I had a real understanding of how fleeting all of it is and how little it has to do with you, quite honestly.”
Netflix will premiere “Jay Kelly” in theaters November 14 with a streaming release December 5. Check out the teaser below.
