Y2K
"Saturday Night Live" alum Kyle Mooney's directorial debut is a doozy.
Film Yap is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
“Saturday Night Live” alum Kyle Mooney’s “Y2K” (now in theaters) won’t be for all tastes or audiences, but for a dude who was an 18-year-old senior in high school at the turn of the century who’s super-nostalgic and has a deep-seeded love for comedy and horror it was right in my wheelhouse.
Eli (Jaeden Martell) and Danny (Julian Dennison) are a coupla dorks who get bullied by metalhead stoners Ash (Lachlan Watson) and Farkas (Eduardo Sanchez, Argyle from “Stranger Things”) for being the equipment managers of the girls basketball team. They don’t really have any friends besides each other … unless you count Garrett (Mooney), the hippie video store clerk who rents them VHS schlock like Ivan Reitman’s “Junior.”
Eli has positive representations of love around him in his parents Robin (Alicia Silverstone … aces casting as she’s still a Betty) and Howard (Tim Heidecker). Despite this he’s having trouble expressing his feelings to longtime crush Laura (Rachel Zegler), a popular girl who also happens to be a computer whiz. In addition to his own shyness, Eli must also contend with romantic rivals Jonas (Mason Gooding), Laura’s college-aged ex, and Soccer Chris (Australian rapper The Kid Laroi), a puka shell necklace-wearing douche who – believe it or not – happens to play soccer.
Eli and Danny decide to crash Soccer Chris’ New Year’s Eve party in hopes that Eli will be the one who kisses Laura at midnight. Unfortunately, when 1999 becomes 2000 our misguided nightmares become reality and electronics become sentient, meld together and begin murdering partiers en masse.
As directed and co-written (alongside Evan Winter) by Mooney, “Y2K” feels like an amalgamation of “Superbad” and “This Is the End.” (Appropriately enough, Jonah Hill who appeared in both movies, produces.) The flick is a tad schizophrenic and all over the place, but the horror-comedy largely works even if laughs are more prevalent than scares. There’s a death half-way through the proceedings that changes the entire complexion of the picture and another that ranks as one of the funniest ones I’ve seen in recent memory. It’s admirably performed by its appealing, youthful cast, has a surprising amount of heart, is shot super-well by legendary cinematographer Bill Pope (“The Matrix”) and has a killer soundtrack (I made a proper playlist on Spotify, which I’ve been listening to while writing this review).
I suspect “Y2K” is a cult movie-in-the-making that will likely entertain and resonate deeply with elder millennials … it certainly did with this one.