'Jay Kelly' is one of those films that you'll either love or find a real bore.
An introspective drama starring George Clooney as essentially a version of himself, Noah Baumbach's movie owes an awful lot to Federico Fellini's '8 1/2' and Woody Allen's 'Stardust Memories'.
Clooney plays the eponymous anti-hero, a Hollywood star who coasts through fame and fortune with the help of an entourage.
They include Adam Sandler's manager Ron Sukenick, Laura Dern's publicist Liz, Emily Mortimer's hair stylist Candy and Thaddea Graham's assistant Meg who to varying degrees make sacrifices in their own lives to cater to his needs.
By way of contrast, Jay makes very few sacrifices as his needs are pandered to.
Estranged from his daughters, Riley Keough's eldest Jessica and Grace Edwards' younger, late teenage Daisy because he prioritised work over being with them as children, he is rattled to discover both are in therapy.
Jay also has an awkward relationship with his father, a former John Deere employee played by Stacy Keach.
It isn't just family who feel short changed.
He cold shouldered the director who gave him his big break, Jim Broadbent's Peter Schneider shortly before his death when approached to lend his star power to projects the veteran filmmaker was struggling to get made.
Things really come to a head when he encounters a former acting school pal, Billy Crudup's Timothy Galligan and goes to lunch with him, only for Jay to discover he harbours resentment towards him because he believes he stole his career.
After the two of them get into a punch-up, Jay flees the possibility of bad publicity in the US by taking Ron, Liz and Meg with him to Paris to catch a train to Tuscany that Daisy is also due to catch.
He hangs the trip on a retrospective award for his career at a Tuscan film festival which he initially turned down.
His about turn on the award means they will now give two, upstaging another of Ron's clients, Patrick Wilson's Ben Alcock who accepted the lifetime achievement honour instead.
As Jay and his team journey though Italy, Ron, Liz and him face some uncomfortable truths about the lives they have pursued and sone big decisions about the directions their lives should take.
But can they right the wrongs of the past?
Baumbach's movie posits Italy as a magical country that in one train passenger's words gives people "permission to be human" again.
And while that is undoubtedly a theme, there's also no doubt Baumbach and Mortimer, who co-wrote the script, are all too aware of the significance of casting Clooney in the role of an ageing old school movie star - even including his real life films like 'Out of Sight,' 'Syriana,' 'Michael Clayton' and 'From Dusk Till Dawn' in a montage of Kelly's work shown at the festival.
And that's part of the movie's problem because its introspection comes across as self indulgent as well as becoming tiresome.
Baumbach and Clooney clearly want us to think he's being a great sport, playing an unflattering version of himself.
However a meditation on the price of fame and the selfishness of artists seems pretty small beer compared to other problems people face in the world.
For someone playing a version of himself, Clooney turns a surprisingly jaded performance.
By way of contrast, Sandler, Dern, Mortimer, Broadbent and Keough are more lively.
Lenny Henry turns up as an acting coach in Jay's younger years and there are cameo appearances by Isla Fisher as Ben Alcock's wife, Eve Hewson as the former co-star who might have just been the love of his life, Jamie Demetriou as a train passenger called Clive and Greta Gerwig as Ron's wife Lois.
As for Baumbach, he delivers another handsome looking film that revels in its Italian settings.
The film sees him further lay claim to the territory Woody Allen occupied for many years with comedy dramas.
While not without its merits, it's not top rank Allen or even top rank Baumbach.
It's just a self-absorbed tribute act drama that leaves little impression.
('Jay Kelly' was released in UK and Irish cinemas on November 14, 2025 and was made available for streaming on Netflix on December 5, 2025)
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