Why 'Jay Kelly' Looks Like Baumbach's Most Personal Film Yet

Noah Baumbach turned 55 last September, right around the time he wrapped Jay Kelly.

We're not saying the film is evidence of a midlife crisis, but it might be a bit of a cry for help from a respected writer/director.

In case you're unaware, we haven't been doing all that well in Hollywood as of late. Productions have left town for greener (cheaper) pastures, and crews are not hiring as often as they used to.

And as TheWrap's review points out, Jay Kelly "is suffused with melancholy for a business that seems to be on shaky ground and filled with a nostalgia for times gone by."

We're now two years post Barbie, which he co-wrote with wife Greta Gerwig, and three years out from his confusing and poorly received adaptation of White Noise. That film's failure to launch is partly what led him to Jay Kelly, as we'll see.

His new film, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival, stars George Clooney as a movie star grappling with regret, memories, and identity as he embarks on a journey across Europe with his manager, Ron (Adam Sandler).

We just got a new trailer for the movie. Check it out below.

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Jay Kelly Looks Like Baumbach's Most Personal Film

According to The Viewer's Perspective, Baumbach described Jay Kelly as hitting the reset button and refinding his "love of making movies" after White Noise.

Working in a troubled industry after a commercial flop, the film does read like Baumbach is asking himself the same questions the character Jay asks himself about the passage of time and the point of it all. For a director who's spent decades navigating this ecosystem, the question of what Hollywood costs feels deeply personal.

And deeply personal is exactly what he's known for. You only have to look to The Squid and the Whale or Marriage Story as evidence. The Hollywood Reporter review noted "the unmistakable signs of lived experience" in many of his stories.

Regardless of whether the bulk of this plot comes from life, his love for the craft shows in the film's first frames, a single-take sequence winding through a movie set that IndieWire compares to Robert Altman's famous opening oner from The Player.

Baumbach told Netflix the film explores "relationships with people who have devoted a good portion of their adult lives to his success. We see how Ron and Liz and everyone who surrounds Jay in his orbit have to sort of drop what they're doing and go with him. Everyone in the movie, to some degree or another, is tasked with the simple and complex question of 'How do we want to spend our lives?'"

That question echoes through Sandler's performance as Jay's manager, Ron.

"I know many Rons," Sandler said. "I've met a lot of nice people along the way who have helped me, thought of me, and put stuff aside in their lives to make sure that mine was going smoothly when I needed them."

For Clooney, the role presented an opportunity at a crossroads.

"When you're an actor in my position, at my age, finding roles like this aren't all that common," he told Vanity Fair. "If you can't make peace with aging, then you've got to get out of the business and just disappear."

There's a final meta (and nostalgic) touch. Variety reports that the film's tribute reel features actual Clooney movie clips standing in for Jay Kelly's filmography.

Jay Kelly will be released in select theaters on Nov. 14 before streaming on Netflix on Dec. 5.