Jay Kelly

George Clooney — sorry, Jay Kelly — is going through some things. He’s a world-famous movie star, a kind of latter-day Cary Grant with devilish good looks, urbanity and charm. His success has exceeded all reasonable expectation, so why does he feel a nagging dissatisfaction? They say he only ever plays himself, but how can that be when he barely knows who he is in the first place? Touring Europe with his friend and manager Ron (Adam Sandler), Jay starts to ask himself some tough questions and reflect on the choices he’s made. Is this a meaningful life? Is change possible?

Jay Kelly is a wise and witty comedy from director Noah Baumbach (Marriage Story; Frances Ha) and co-writer Emily Mortimer, featuring an all-star cast.

Director’s Statement: Jay Kelly is about a man looking back at his life and reflecting on the choices, the sacrifices, the successes, the mistakes he’s made. When is it too late to change the course of our lives? Jay Kelly is an actor and as such the movie is about identity. How we perform ourselves. Who are we as parents, children, friends, professionals? Are we good? Are we bad? What is the gap between who we’ve decided we are and who we might actually be? What makes a life? Jay Kelly is about what it means to be yourself.

Clooney plays it all so cool that he and the movie both sneak up on us. This is the role of a lifetime, on many levels. And he delivers the performance of a lifetime.

Bilge Eberi, New York magazine

A fictional inside-the-movie-world portrait that’s been made with a great deal of care and affection and entertaining dish, and it’s the definition of a movie that goes down easy.

Owen Gleiberman, Variety

A deeply wise and perhaps even more deeply mischievous midlife crisis comedy… Terrifically smart… It’s a beady probe into the nature of movie-stardom – the way it elevates, simplifies, streamlines what being human is – but also a more straightforward bittersweet comedy about a busy dad whose job keeps him away from the loved ones he notionally does it to support.

Robbie Colin, Daily Telegraph