Jay Kelly
Netflix | Release Date: November 14, 2025 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
67
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 51 Critic Reviews
Positive:
31
Mixed:
19
Negative:
1

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
StatusBrian LowryDec 5, 2025
Think of “Jay Kelly” as a taller and better-looking version of Woody Allen’s “Stardust Memories." Read full review
60
EmpireLaura VenningDec 5, 2025
It’s a real pleasure to be whisked across the world by Baumbach, but perhaps this cinematic glass of Prosecco goes down rather too easily. Read full review
60
The New YorkerJustin ChangNov 12, 2025
Sandler isn’t doing a strained meta riff on his persona; he’s playing an honest-to-God character, plagued by stress, uncertainty, and an unfashionably big heart. There’s art to his performance, and no shortage of life. Read full review
60
ColliderRoss BonaimeOct 20, 2025
Like the title character himself, Jay Kelly is a film that has good intentions, but doesn’t have the follow-through to make good on those promises. Read full review
60
ScreenCrushMatt SingerOct 3, 2025
The final act pickles Jay Kelly’s tragicomic vibe into something more overtly and excessively sentimental. Read full review
60
Screen RantJack WaltersAug 30, 2025
Ultimately, Jay Kelly is a very moving, sentimental film that succeeds effortlessly at telling a great story, but whose attempts to go thematically deeper often feel repetitive. Read full review
60
Next Best PictureJosh ParhamAug 30, 2025
Although considerable attention is paid to a general love of cinema and those who work to create it, this portrait mostly plays on the surface, evading the more complex inquiries necessary to give this analysis greater depth. Despite much to commend, there remains an emptiness at the center that mirrors the protagonist’s own life. Perhaps it is intentional, but it remains unfulfilling. Read full review
60
TimeStephanie ZacharekAug 28, 2025
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? Read full review
60
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeAug 28, 2025
The film does indeed reflect how megastardom goes about its business. The script, by the director and Emily Mortimer, piles on the irony with admirable diligence. But this is about as cutting-edge as making fun of Donald Trump for being orange. Read full review
60
VarietyOwen GleibermanAug 28, 2025
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, and it’s the definition of a movie that goes down easy. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyAug 28, 2025
There’s pleasure to be had from Sandler’s nuanced work and from the ensemble’s ridiculously deep bench of gifted supporting players. But the director’s fourth feature for Netflix is mid-tier Baumbach at best. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreDec 9, 2025
Clooney? When he has a comical moment, he makes the most of it. His attempts at heartfelt epiphany left me cold. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesNov 20, 2025
The familiar faces inject instant warmth, but I’m not sure it’s entirely earned. By the time Jay Kelly arrived at its last line – buffed to a bland sheen, as if the whole film was reverse-engineered to land there – I had cooled considerably. Read full review
50
Rolling StoneDavid FearNov 13, 2025
While it has its share of highlights...there’s a lot of celebrity malaise and hot air masquerading as insight here. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubAlex LeiOct 6, 2025
Every moment of Jay Kelly lives between the textual (the internal conflict of the fictional actor) and the metatextual (what the story tells us about the real creative forces behind the film). Read full review
50
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiSep 26, 2025
Clooney draws you in, but upon arrival there’s an emptiness. Read full review
45
The Daily BeastNick SchagerSep 30, 2025
Mistakenly assumes that the woe-is-me routines of the rich and famous are the stuff of great drama. Read full review
40
The Irish TimesTara BradyNov 19, 2025
Baumbach’s characteristically barbed wit too often makes way for self-indulgence and sentimentality. Ruminations on fame as a hollow, unfulfilling enterprise have all the depth of a disposable contact lens. Read full review
40
IONCINEMA.comNicholas BellNov 11, 2025
Between tidbits of enjoyable banter, Baumbach stages some of the most comically tone-deaf moments of his career. Read full review
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