The film had its world premiere in the main competition of the 82nd Venice International Film Festival on August 28, 2025, where it was nominated for the Golden Lion.[3] It will then be released in select theaters on November 14, 2025, followed by its global release on Netflix on December 5.
Premise
Famous movie actor Jay Kelly and his devoted manager Ron embark on a whirlwind and unexpectedly profound journey through Europe. Along the way, both men are forced to confront the choices they’ve made, the relationships with their loved ones, and the legacies they’ll leave behind.
Actor Jay Kelly (George Clooney) is playing the last scene of a movie where his character is dying while accompanied by a dog who Jay Kelly is not very kind to because the dog comes into the scene before it's cue. The movie wraps and Jay Kelly is fawned over by his entourage of his manager Ron (played by Adam Sandler), his publicist (Laura Dern) etc.
The movie then shifts to Jay Kelly trying to spend time with his youngest daughter Daisy. Daisy is going to Europe before she attends college. Jay wants to spend his two weeks time off before the next movie with the Lewis Brothers with his youngest daughter Daisy but she is more eager to be on her own with her friends since she is eighteen (her age and her distance from her father as the reason for her being eighteen is a repeated motif throughout the movie). Jay then learns that the director who gave him his break Peter Schneider (played by Jim Broadbent) is dead. Jay attends the funeral of Schneider feeling guilty because Schneider had asked Jay Kelly to lend his name to a movie to make it more easily financed. Schneider was doing this movie to help his waning career and in his advanced age he was feeling like this was his only reason to go on living. Jay Kelly flat out refuses to be part of the movie.
At the funeral Schneider's son explains how Peter Schneider was untouchable by Hollywood after his last few "bombs" or "flops" and was always trying to find financing for his next movie. As Jay Kelly leaves Peter Schneider's funeral he runs into an old friend, fellow actor, roommate by the name of Timothy (or Tim played by Billy Crudup). Jay Kelly and Tim decide to go out for drinks on the spot to catch up even though Ron has some reservations about Tim (who is now a child psychologist). Ron warns Jay Kelly to stick to beers and avoid anything heavier but Jay imbibes hard liquor with his old roommate and friend Tim. After a few drinks Jay asks Tim to read a menu with and without emotion because Jay always admired Tim and he and the entire class thought Tim would go somewhere and be the best actor of their generation because Tim was so good in class. Tim reads the menu first without emotion and then with emotion and is perfect at it. Tim then says he hates Jay Kelly, always has and always will because Jay Kelly stole his girlfriend and then stole the one movie role which was going to be a breakthrough role for him by showing up as a "friend" at his audition for Peter Schneider's film (the film that made Jay Kelly's career).
Upon recognizing the animus Jay Kelly leaves the bar followed by Tim who is itching to have a fight with him and is saying hurtful things to Jay Kelly. Turns out Tim is in touch with the therapist who counsels the children of Jay Kelly and Tim mentions how his children find Jay to be an empty shell and a terrible father. Tim then pushes and provokes a fight with Jay Kelly in the parking lot of the bar.
Next we see Jay Kelly is packing to fly to France to be with his daughter Daisy and does not want to do the movie by the Lewis Brothers. Ron the manager is particularly upset because Jay is no longer in the prime of his career and this could bankrupt him and end his career. Jay instead invites Ron to come with him to Europe where the excuse they will use is that Jay is visiting France as Dior's ambassador and then he is going to Tuscany to pick up an award which is a "tribute" to his career. Jay finds out that his daughter , Daisy, is in Paris by asking one of his assistants to find out the whereabouts of a friend accompanying Daisy through her credit card transactions.
Jay's entourage is worried about the black eye he is sporting and when they ask he postpones their queries by saying he will tell them later (as in when they are flying to Paris and then when they are flying to Paris he tells them that they will know when they are on the train to Tuscany etc.). As Jay's entourage boards the plane and flies over to Paris they discover that Daisy is no longer going to be attending the Jazz festival in Paris and is headed on a train out of Paris. Jay immediately directs his team to buy tickets on the train so he can catch up with his daughter.
As he boards the train Jay is elated to finally be in touch with the common people who cheer him and applaud him. Jay invites the train passengers of a car to the tribute in Tuscany and then moves to say hello to his daughter. He hears in the interim that Tim is suing him for breaking his nose in the altercation in the parking lot. After composing himself Jay approaches his daughter who is initially confused and cautiously optimistic. She begins narrating her adventures to his dad when Jay gets distracted by Daisy's boyfriend filming her hand (from habit). Daisy noticing this becomes upset and asks Jay why and how he found out about her whereabouts. He tells her that he tracked her friend's credit card transactions through Daisy's friend's mom. Daisy and her friends are in an uproar and leave the dining car to be by themselves. Jay is left to nurse a bottle of Pellegrino water.
As Jay is having this conversation a subplot unfolds between Ron (Jay's manager played by Adam Sandler) and Liz (Jay's publicist played by Laura Dern). It turns out that Ron & Liz treated Jay like their child even though he is not their child and just pays them. Ron is still upset with Liz for leaving him some 20 years ago at the Eiffel tower dinner where he was going to propose to her but Liz left to look after Jay and never returned to their romantic dinner. Liz complains that she is abandoning her daughter and Ron has already had to cut short a tennis tournament with his daughter to look after Jay's new found desire to abandon movie roles in search of tracking his youngest daughter Daisy across Europe.
Liz leaves and Ron is left thinking over his choices and his daughter's health problems when Jay arrives to talk about his own problems. Ron tries to explain to Jay what is going on in his life but Jay Kelly refuses to listen and keeps talking about his own problems. At this point one of the passengers on the train steal's an elderly lady's handbag but Jay rescues the handbag from the thief and is become a hero online.
Ron convinces Jay Kelly to fly his dad over and Ron reluctantly agrees. Upon arriving in Tuscany Jay is met with general fan fare & Ron leaves to nurse his relationship with his other less famous client Ben Alcock (played by Patrick Wilson). Jay is meanwhile upset that Ron has to leave him to attend to Ben. When Ron arrives for lunch with ben Alcock, Ben fires Ron. Both of them cry over it and Ron calls his family to ask them if they still love him but they are all business about family problems. Ron returns to Jay who is more interested in letting lose and dancing. Ron informs Jay that after speaking with some attorneys Tim is dropping the charges of assault against Jay Kelly because they unearthed an old drug charge against the child psychologist. Ron is unhappy that he cannot call to apologize to Tim so he proceed to the dance floor. While he is dancing he hears that his elderly father had a dizzy spell. When Jay returns to speak to his father he finds that his father is more interested in returning home to Maine. Jay repeatedly pleads with his father to stay but his Dad leaves anyways.
Jay runs after the taxi that his father is in but his father does not stop and Jay keeps on running. He is overtaken by Ben Alcock entourage composed of his wife and children who have just fired Ron and inform Jay Kelly about their decision. Jay runs into the forest to talk to his oldest daughter Jessica and tries to convince her to meet him in Tuscany. Jessica refuses and we have a subplot unfold of how Jay had neglected Jessica. Jessica took Jay to meet with her therapist who reads a letter that Jessica wrote to Jay how she really missed her father and how Jay was not the father he portrays in movies. Jay leaves the therapist's office in a huff because the therapist instead of his daughter is reading the letter and is crying while doing so.
As Jessica refuses to visit her father in Tuscany he is seen kneeling on the ground on the forest floor in his white suit. We then see Ron leaving in a taxi as Jay returns to the hotel. Jay now runs after Ron's taxi and Ron finally stops and asks if Jay is doing good. Jay tells him that he wants him to stay for the tribute. Ron tells him he no longer wants to work for Jay as Jay realizes that he has replaced his family relationships with his work relationships. However the workers are only working for him and do not necessarily feel the same way about him (with the exception of Ron). Ron agrees to attend the tribute with Jay Kelly. The movie closes with Jay looking into the camera and asking for "another shot".
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 78% of 55 critics' reviews are positive.The website's consensus reads: "George Clooney riffs on his star persona with disarming vulnerability while Adam Sandler impressively expands his dramatic range in Jay Kelly, a Hollywood satire that's gentler than one might expect from director Noah Baumbach."[19]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 62 out of 100, based on 22 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[20]
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