Movie · 2025 · Drama, Comedy · 2h 12m · R · English
Curator score: 3.8/10 (223.7K ratings)
Everybody knows Jay Kelly, but Jay Kelly doesn't know himself.
Overview
Famous movie actor Jay Kelly embarks on a journey of self-discovery, confronting both his past and present, accompanied by his devoted manager, Ron.
Ratings
Curator score: 3.8/10
IMDb: 6.5/10
Letterboxd: 3.32/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 75%
Metacritic: 67
TMDB: 6.2/10
Director
Noah Baumbach
Production
Pascal Pictures, Heyday Films, NB/GG Pictures
Cast
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
Where to watch
Netflix, Netflix Standard with Ads
Curator Review
Verdict
A reflective, often funny showbiz road movie with real sadness at its center, but it can feel too self-conscious and emotionally obvious for its own good. The strongest stretch is the relationship between the star and his manager, which gives the film more bite than its celebrity premise alone suggests.
Best for
fans of bittersweet character studies
viewers who like backstage Hollywood stories
people open to melancholy comedy-drama
audiences interested in regret, aging, and legacy
Skip if
you want sharp, highly subversive dialogue
you dislike self-pitying or navel-gazing stories
you prefer plot-driven comedies
you’re tired of movies about famous people reflecting on fame
Overview
Jay Kelly is at its best when it stops admiring its own premise and lets the emotional damage surface. The movie understands the weird loneliness of being professionally adored and personally absent, and it finds its most affecting material in the manager who has spent years orbiting that emptiness.
Worth noting
Noah Baumbach’s touch is present in the anxiety, the self-justifying humor, and the ache of people who cannot quite say what they need to say. But the film is also more straightforward than his sharpest work, and some of its insights land with a little too much force instead of surprise.
Bottom line
Even so, the performances keep it alive, especially in the scenes where the movie turns from celebrity satire into a reckoning with wasted time. It’s a sad, polished, occasionally overfamiliar film that still earns its final emotional notes.
Top Letterboxd reviews
James (Schaffrillas) (3.5★) · 3662 likes
It's good, but there's an inescapable "woe is me" quality that never fully goes away even during Clooney's best scenes. It quickly becomes evident that the emotional core lies with Sandler's character, to the point where I had to question why the story wasn't about him. As a Baumbach fan I'm disappointed that the dialogue wasn't sharper and the message wasn't conveyed in a more subtle manner; it really isn't like him to turn in a script so standard. Credit… more It's good, but there's an inescapable "woe is me" quality that never fully goes away even during Clooney's best scenes. It quickly becomes evident that the emotional core lies with Sandler's character, to the point where I had to question why the story wasn't about him. As a Baumbach fan I'm disappointed that the dialogue wasn't sharper and the message wasn't conveyed in a more subtle manner; it really isn't like him to turn in a script so standard. Credit… more
abdullah (3★) · 3582 likes
Ironic that netflix dropped a movie about the glory of movies and going to theatres the day they announced they could potentially ruin that.
zoë rose bryant (4★) · 3284 likes
“it’s got to have meant something.”“what if it didn’t?”crazy for this and sentimental value to release so close together, because they make for an almost impossibly perfect double feature - albeit one that might also murder the first daughters of flawed fathers
“can i go again? i’d like another one.” fucking hell.
Patrick Willems · 2431 likes
A major addition to the train movie canon
Sydney🚀 (3.5★) · 2270 likes
Deeply, deeply sad movie about the sort of person you don’t want to shed tears for, so it works that it plays like A Christmas Carol for a solipsistic absent father and friend - “who will be at my tribute?” becomes “who will be at my funeral?” becomes a devastating reminder that we only get one go at this, and sometimes what you thought you would have to show for it doesn’t mean anything at all. Leave it to Adam… more Deeply, deeply sad movie about the sort of person you don’t want to shed tears for, so it works that it plays like A Christmas Carol for a solipsistic absent father and friend - “who will be at my tribute?” becomes “who will be at my funeral?” becomes a devastating reminder that we only get one go at this, and sometimes what you thought you would have to show for it doesn’t mean anything at all. Leave it to Adam… more
2013 · Drama, Adventure · 1h 55m · R · Curator 8.5/10 (234.6K ratings) · Where to watch: fuboTV, Paramount Plus Premium, Paramount Plus Essential, MGM Plus
A dryly funny road movie about late-life reckoning, family distance, and the sadness of unfinished emotional business.