Everyone’s aware of Adam Sandler’s talents as a comedian, and we even got to see him reprise one of his most famous characters in Happy Gilmore 2 earlier this year. However, much of the latest chapter of his career has been defined by his more serious roles, and next up on the 2025 movie calendar, we’ll see the Sandman teaming up with George Clooney and some other heavy-hitters for Jay Kelly. So what are critics saying about the dramedy?
Jay Kelly has already hit theaters for a limited time before it premieres on the Netflix schedule on December 5. George Clooney stars as the titular movie star who sets out on a journey of self-discovery, with his loyal manager Ron (Adam Sandler) in tow. The movie is getting mostly positive feedback, but critics seem to agree it lets its main character off the hook too often. Mark Kennedy of the AP mentions this but ultimately says he likes director Noah Baumbach’s love letter to Hollywood. He gives it 3.5 out of 4 stars and says:
Could the movie have hit harder at the self-involved stars we often worship? Of course. But what makes it powerful is not the Hollywood drama. This is a movie for any of us who have missed a child’s school recital, asked an assistant to work late or skipped a family dinner because a client was running behind. It’s about time. It’s about where we choose to spend our time. First stop: Jay Kelly.
Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com rates it 3 out of 4 stars, pointing out a lot of good, but saying much of Jay Kelly feels calculated and too neat. Adam Sandler, however, according to Tallerico, saves the movie with a performance that some think could win him his first Oscar. The critic says:
Thank Celebrity God, then, for Adam Sandler, who steals the movie by feeling the most truthful. I would never purport to know Sandler’s complex emotional relationship with fame or with people in his life, but he understands, either through observation or experience, what it means to devote your life to someone in a power imbalance. … Sandler perfectly embodies a guy who’s been hit by Jay’s emotional shrapnel over and over again. Every time Jay missed a school concert for a project, Ron probably did too. Rons don’t get tributes. It’s just another example of how good Sandler can be in the right material, his best performance since Uncut Gems.
Owen Gleiberman of Variety says Noah Baumbach is doing what he does best: feeding us a dialogue-driven drama that feels ripped from personal observation. However, the film is a bit too forgiving of the title character and doesn’t allow us to buy Jay Kelly as a flawed individual. In Gleiberman’s words:
Jay Kelly is a fictional inside-the-movie-world portrait that’s been made with a great deal of care and affection and entertaining dish; it’s the definition of a movie that goes down easy. Clooney, playing such a direct variation on himself, does an expert job of showing us celebrity from the inside out, deconstructing the very notion of stardom. … But for all its enjoyable qualities, and its vivid details, Jay Kelly is a movie that takes a ‘hard’ look at stardom yet has a soft center.
Stephanie Zacharek of Time writes that Adam Sandler plays his role “superbly,” and Laura Dern threatens to steal it all in one scene with him. George Clooney, meanwhile, couldn’t be more well-suited to play Jay Kelly, getting to razzle-dazzle one minute and brood over his mistakes the next. But too often the movie refuses to dig deep into its actor’s conflicts, Zacharek says, continuing:
There’s nothing overtly dislikable about the film, and there are a handful of scenes that are beautifully written, acted, and directed. But Jay Kelly feels more sentimental than truly thoughtful, particularly in the motif that resounds like a clanging bell in Jay’s brain: Why didn’t I spend more time with my kids? … His only true friend is the guy who, the movie reminds us several times, gets a 15% cut of everything he earns, his manager Ron. And is that really a friend at all?
Nick Schager of the Daily Beast simply isn’t buying the “woe-is-me” version of George Clooney that he says mistakenly assumes that the routines of the rich and famous are the stuff of great drama. Schager calls the project “saccharine, toothless, and cheesily meta,” concluding:
Jay Kelly is a long-form People magazine cover story that never gets beneath the surface of Hollywood fame. Sunset Boulevard this most certainly is not, as Baumbach treats Jay (and Clooney) with kid gloves, content to coddle and console as much as he censures. Consequently, and in conjunction with its persistent meta flourishes, the film resonates as merely the vainest sort of vanity project.
It seems the most common complaint amongst the critics is that Jay Kelly doesn’t hold its protagonist accountable for the things he’s done to find himself in this state of identity crisis. Still, the majority of the critics are rating it favorably, to the tune of a Certified Fresh 80% on Rotten Tomatoes.
If you want to see George Clooney and Adam Sandler in action, check your local theaters to see if there’s a showing near you, and if not, fire up that Netflix subscription when it hits streaming on Friday, December 5.