Jay Kelly (2025)

We liked this comedy-drama a lot in which mega movie star George Clooney plays the titular mega movie star trying to connect with his daughter, much to the frustration of his beleaguered manager Ron, played by Adam Sandler, and the rest of the star's team. The terrific and enormous supporting cast includes Riley Keough and Grace Edwards as Jay's daughters, Laura Dern as his publicist, Billy Crudup as his friend Timothy, Stacy Keach as his father, Jim Broadbent as his mentor, Eve Hewson as an actress in one of his movies, Emily Mortimer as his hairdresser, Greta Gerwig as Ron's wife, Sadie Sandler as his daughter, and Patrick Wilson as his other client.

Director Noah Baumbach co-wrote the script with Mortimer and the beautiful cinematography by Linus Sandgren and production design by Mark Tildesley contribute to the glossy look of the picture.

I'm streaming Nicholas Britell's lively score on Apple Music as I write. And this fun list of trivia points includes that clips from a number of Clooney's own work appear in this movie.

Clooney was last blogged for Ticket to Paradise, both Sandlers for You Are So Not Invited to my Bat Mitzvah, Keough for Zola, Edwards for Call Jane, Dern for JT LeRoy, Crudup for Jackie, Keach for Nebraska, Broadbent for The Duke, Hewson for Flora and Son, Mortimer for acting in Mary Poppins Returns and she co-wrote and created the series Doll & Em, in which she plays a famous actress who hires her best friend as her assistant. Gerwig was most recently in these pages (for acting) for White Noise, Wilson for Millers in Marriage, Baumbach for directing White Noise and for co-writing his life partner Gerwig's Barbie, Sandgren for shooting Saltburn, Tildesley for production designing Empire of Light, and Britell for scoring She Said.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics, averaging 76%, are less star-struck than its audiences at 87. So far the movie has eight wins, including being one of the top ten movies of the year for both American Film Institute and National Board of Review, as well as 38 other nominations.

Jack and I streamed it on Netflix on December 17.