14/10/2025

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TV SHOW REVIEW

George Clooney plays film star in Jay Kelly

TWO-TIME Oscar winner George Clooney drew from his own life to play a Hollywood legend in his new movie Jay Kelly . The comedy-drama stars Clooney as ageing global superstar Jay Kelly and combines humour with contemplation on the cost of celebrity and fame. “There are elements certainly about the experience that I’ve had, but not so many regrets, which I think is ‘thank God’,” Clooney, 64, said while attending the movie’s London Film Festival premiere last Friday. “It’s personal, but I’m not as unhappy as that guy. I have a family that I love and kids who I think still love me. They’re eight, there’s time to screw it up. And I have friends that I don’t pay.” Directed by Noah Baumbach, who co-wrote the screenplay with actress Emily Mortimer, Jay Kelly sees the titular character reflect on his past and present as he travels to Europe with his large entourage. The group, including his publicist Liz, played by Laura Dern, and hair and makeup artist Candy (Mortimer), slowly disintegrates along the journey. But Kelly’s loyal manager Ron, portrayed by Adam Sandler, stays by his side and takes

stock of his own life. “You see somebody who, when they make a movie, it takes a lot of time away from your family. I’ve always tried to bring family around as much as possible. And like anyone who works for a living, you’re away from some stuff you wish you weren’t missing. It’s dealing with that pain and finding out the best balance,” said Sandler. Baumbach, whose previous films include Marriage Story and White Noise , and who co-wrote the hit movie Barbie with his wife Greta Gerwig, said he set out to make a movie about an actor in crisis. “I think it was a way to tell a story about all of us in some way. An actor was a kind of stand-in for all of us who are trying to figure out the gap between how we present ourselves to the world and who we may actually be, and as we get older, also how we contend with that,” said Baumbach. Jay Kelly , which features a starry supporting cast, including Billy Crudup, Riley Keough, Louis Partridge, Isla Fisher, Jim Broadbent and Gerwig, receives a limited theatrical release in November and starts streaming on Netflix on Dec 5. – Reuters

Monstrous stumble The cost of transforming into a kaiju begins to show its effects on Kafka. – PICS BY PRODUCTION I.G.

A FTER a good first season, Kaiju No. 8 returns not with an all-out roar, but one that ends with a slight whimper. It certainly does not help that the second season comes at the backend of a blitzkrieg of other high-quality anime films and TV shows, making comparisons inevitable. Following the explosive season one’s finale, Kafka Hibino (Masaya Fukunishi) has been inducted by the Japanese Anti-Kaiju Defence Force (JAKDF) beyond being a standard officer and is now recognised as one of the organisation’s biggest assets due to his ability to turn into a kaiju . Due to the growing threat of kaijus becoming more powerful with each invasive wave, the JAKDF begins to train Kafka and its other new officers such as Reno Ichikawa (Wataru Katoh) and Kikoru Shinomiya (Fairouz Ai). As the JAKDF goes about o Second season of Kaiju No. 8 thrills visually but struggles with pacing, payoff Ű BY MARK MATHEN VICTOR

Numbers, weapons and armour developed from the carcass of defeated kaijus , receive new users such as Reno.

While this season addresses a complaint from the first season involving the core side characters not receiving development or screen time, this time around, they get their moments to shine but everything flies by quickly with very little breathing room in 11 episodes. The breakneck pacing even deprives Kafka – the show’s lead character – of significant screen presence, as the second season has to shuffle between introducing new characters such as Gen Narumi, new Numbers weapons, new JAKDF divisions and so on. From a plot perspective, having Kafka hold back from transforming after early in the season adds further salt to the wound. Once Kaiju No. 8 is fully primed to deliver what made the first season very good by the last episode as Kafka steps into the fray, the season abruptly ends on a cliffhanger. Ultimately, the season either needed more episodes or an extra season as proper breathing room to build up to Kafka entering the final series of fights against Kaiju No. 9 and its forces. Going into the third season, which is likely its last as there are only 50 chapters from Naoya Matsumoto’s manga left to adapt, Kaiju No. 8 will benefit from having more episodes to space out the character, story and action beats.

preparing its soldiers, the show’s primary villain Kaiju No. 9 (Hiroyuki Yoshino) kicks its plan of conquering Japan and then creating a world for monsters into action, beginning with striking at Kafka and the strongest members of the JAKDF by creating kaijus that counter the strengths of each officer. Though the animation and action remains stellar, especially with the introduction of new main characters and kaiju-killing equipment, Kaiju No. 8’s second season does not quite have the steam that its predecessor had.

From left: Clooney, Baumbach and Sandler posing on the red carpet as they attend the gala screening of Jay Kelly during the 2025 BFI London Film Festival. – AFPPIC

Kaiju No. 9 is the driving force behind the events throughout the season.