Jay Kelly (2025)

Beautiful to look at. Existential as hell. Still a movie about movies.

I’m generally not a fan of movies about actors and directors pontificating on the art of making films in Hollywood. Even the greats in this subgenre don’t do it for me - I don’t love 8½, which I know is blasphemy. The one exception is Adaptation. That’s the ceiling.

Jay Kelly is Noah Baumbach’s latest, and it’s very much a Baumbach joint - naturalistic dialogue, existential weight, characters who talk around their feelings until they can’t anymore. His writing here is funny and has real depth. The conversations feel lived-in rather than scripted.

Everyone is well cast. Adam Sandler is doing that thing he does in serious roles where you remember he’s actually a tremendous actor. George Clooney is playing himself again - something the film openly comments on - and I still love it. Billy Crudup is great. Laura Dern is great. This is one of the most beautiful looking films of the year, and I appreciated that they didn’t bother with digital de-aging on anyone. Let these faces be faces.

As a character study, it works. The existential dread is palpable. And honestly, this might be one of the best male friendship movies of the year alongside Friendship. The stuff about work relationships, aging, and what we owe the people who’ve known us longest - that all lands.

But your mileage with me on films about films only goes so far. I just don’t care about Hollywood’s self-reflection. That ceiling exists, and Jay Kelly bumps against it. I liked this. I’m not sure I’ll revisit it.

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