Jay Kelly (2025)

Baumbach's portrait of a star attempting to make sense of his life, the conflicts of his fame and his personal life, his relationships with family and staff, is about as cliched and predictable as you might expect. Filled with stars, even in cameo roles, the film feels like it's trying to say something but it gets watered down in its milquetoast dialogue and plot. The worst part, it's boring. I never cared about what happened. 

It's not that Jay Kelly's a bad movie. Its all fine. It's just so bland and so unimpressive. The script is pedestrian. While there are funny bits and there are charming moments, most of the it just feels so standard. I was never surprised or touched by anything in it. 

It's not that the performances are bad. This is a top notch cast and none of them are slumming it. Clooney himself is quite good even if it's clear he is just playing himself. "Do you know how hard it is to be yourself?" he says at one point, in a moment that is both meta and an attempt at being profound. And that's not the only meta reference in this film. Kelly's script doesn't give any of them enough to really work with that doesn't feel heavy handed. So they are all just fine in a movie that's about the same.  

And fine is fine. It's just not that interesting. Maybe it's all more interesting to the people who are in it than to the people watching. 

Jay Kelly

Starring: George Clooney, Adam Sandler, Laura Dern, Billy Crudup, Riley Keough, Grace Edwards, Jim Broadbent, Stacey Keach, Patrick Wilson, Greta Gerwig, Josh Hamilton, Emily Mortimer, Isla Fisher, Noah Baumbach

Director: Noah Baumbach

Writers: Emily Mortimer, Noah Baumbach

Hamnet (2025)

Hamnet kept exceeding my expectations. I was a bit skeptical of a romance about Will and Agnes centred around the death of their son but was impressed with how effectively the film handled its central characters falling in love and living into their relationship over time. I wasn't sure how affected I would be by the implications of seeing the play Hamlet as a reaction to a child's death. Yet the film managed to bring these ideas together so powerfully it was impossible not to be moved by it. Finally I did't expect to have a movie about loss, devastating loss, to be this affirming in the end. Everything about Hamnet was more than I expected. 

It is no doubt Oscar winning director Zhao makes beautiful movies but I have found her previous films a bit distant and reserved. Hamnet was not that. It was incredibly beautiful. Zhao fills her movie with a verdant beauty that connects her characters to the earth and environment in tangible ways. But there was nothing cold or removed. This film digs deep into emotional places, both painful and wonderful, in surprising fashion. 

Movie romance often feels prescriptive and cartoony. I love it when a film can make me feel its characters falling in love, and being in love as that grows. Despite Hamnet not spending too much of its time on that, the love story here is very real and visceral. I could feel the attraction between the characters and not due to some sort of thirsty scenes but because of how they connect. And as their lives move forward and pull them in different directions, their love remains something palpable throughout, even when strained to the maximum. 

But is is the way the film and story (from co-writerO'Farrell whose book this is based on) weave together the tales of the death of the boy Hamnet with the crafting of the play Hamlet. The clever casting of older Jupe brother Noah as an actor playing Hamlet and the younger Jupe brother Jacobi playing the doomed child helps us see and feel what Agnes is feeling. But it is Buckley who knocks this out of the park with one of the most incredible performances of 2025. Yes there are the Oscar baitey scenes around the death itself, and the subtle ways she handles the happier parts of the story, but it is the final moments where she most truly shines. Mescal isn't a slouch either. He enacts some of the famous play's lines so wonderfully (as if from the author himself) even the legendary soliloquy itself.    

It is the film's final moments that are so revelatory and remarkable. Zhao doesn't rush it, giving us time to take in the power of Hamlet's final act and sit with Agens and her grief within it. It is the sort of scene that is both devastating and uplifting and could have easily felt so disappointingly cliched. Yet it is a remarkable cinematic moment and gives us so much as the audience to sit with. 

Hamnet

Starring: Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Emily Watson, Joe Alwyn, Jacobi Jupe, Noah Jupe

Director: Chloé Zhao

Writers: Maggie O'Farrell, Chloé Zhao