Y2K Movie Review | Kyle Mooney | Rachel Zegler | Fred Durst | A24

It's a 91 minutes that felt much, much longer. Hope your dial up is ready for us today to watch our review of Y2K. This is the directorial debut of Kyle Mooney. It is a comedy slash apocalyptic thriller. It's a few things. Alonzo, what happens here? It's a teen disaster movie is how I like to think of it. Yeah. So the premise here basically is that it's December 31st, 1999. A couple of, uh, high school, uh, you know, nerds, outsiders, you know, they, they do the, they're the equipment guys for the girls' basketball team played by, uh, Jaden Martell from, uh, knives out and the book of Henry. Never forget the book of Henry. And Julian Dennison from Deadpool two and a hunt for the Wilbur people. Um, they decide they're going to go to the popular kids New Year's party and crash it. So that, um, Jaden Martell's character can be close to his online crush played by Rachel Zegler. Um, and then midnight strikes. And in this version, Oh no, the Y2K bug is even worse than we thought. The electronics become sentient and begin working together to form these giant bipedal killing machines where they plan to completely take over the human race. Uh, and, uh, it's up to these plucky teens to stop that from happening. This movie starts with some promise. Like the, the kind of awkward teen stuff is good. Like how Mooney is very good at awkward and absurd. He's making his directorial debut here. He co-wrote the film and like, there are moments where Jaden Martell is talking to Rachel Zegler. And he'll just, just the weirdest things will pop out of his mouth because he just gets that dorky nervous. Uh, I don't know what to say moment. And, and I was like, okay, I'm on board for this. Let's see where it goes. And then it just kind of falls apart. Like I admire any disaster movie that will kill any character at any time. Like that's the Poseidon adventure level. Sorry. We know you love Stella Stevens, but adios, you know, unfortunately they kill all the funny characters. And so we're left with the earnest boars and, um, they're not fun. And the sort of like tension thriller, you know, apocalyptic aspects of it. Clever or well put together. This isn't particularly well edited. It's not particularly well shot. The sound's not great. Like it's just kind of, it kind of lurches along and, uh, it's a 91 minutes that felt much, much longer. Yeah. It feels like a skip that was like stretched out to feature length and like just keeps going and going. And so much of it is just wallowing in the technology and like the cheesiness of this era in terms of music and culture. And like Kyle Mooney worked at the video store and he's like a white dude with dreads, you know, that kind of look. It's a lot of like Fat Boy Slim and Chumbawamba and Limp Bizkit. Like Fred Durst is in this as himself. And the first couple of times they referred to him as Fred Durst. Hey, Fred Durst, what should we do next? Cause it's kind of funny, but they keep hammering that. Like Fred Durst as a screen presence isn't terribly compelling. Um, he was much better and I saw the TV glow. Oh, right. I forgot about that. So, um, yeah, big year for Fred Durst on screen. So I liked that Rachel Zegler gets a chance to do something contemporary. Sure. Comparatively compared to West Side Story and Snow White. Right. And, uh, and then she was also, uh, she was the voice in, uh, Spellbound, which we reviewed recently, and she was in the Hunger Games prequel. Right. Yes. Okay. And she's got a really lovely presence about her and like a directness that's really accessible about her. I like her as an actress, as a screen presence. Um, but there's not a lot to her character. I would say they don't know how to write her, unfortunately. I think, yeah, she's appealing, but like, she is a character who is like a homecoming queen and a hacker. And that's potentially interesting, but I don't think these dudes writing this movie know how to like create this person beyond the conceptual level. You know? And everything doesn't seem like it got past the conceptual level here. Well, also, I mean, you and I were grown people when Y2K happened. Like I remember so vividly where I was that night, what the days and weeks leading up to that night were like. I was working in a newsroom in Dallas with the Associated Press then. And a bunch of us were there staffing the bureau all night because we were really legitimately on edge. Like no one knew what was going to happen. And there were all these assurances of like, it's going to be okay. We've shored up all the technology, but really nobody knew. And so this movie doesn't even accomplish that sense of fear, of, you know, of suspense, of anxiety. There was a lot of anxiety. This is what the whole entire movie American Beauty is about, is like millennial anxiety. This movie does not capture that at all, nor does it even capture just the basics of being a New Year's Eve movie. When the countdown happens, it's just like any other party. Yeah, it's all very backgrounded. There's a really good documentary that was on Max that we both saw called Timebomb Y2K, and there's no interviews in it. It's just news footage from like the last couple of years of the 20th century of people, of preppers, you know, and of, you know, this one guy who was like the main dude who was like trying to tell all the computer people for years, like this is coming up, this is a big deal. We have to get ready for it. And that movie says so much more about this period of history than this one does, and I know this is meant to be a comedy, it's meant to be a disaster movie, but like it doesn't, doesn't give you the texture of what that moment was about, which is, should be where all of the comedy and the tension springs from. So yeah, this is kind of felt like, well, you know, if we have a bunch of teenagers saying, you know, tub thumping, it'll be funny. Also, you know, the whole like kitschiness of AOL chat rooms, which I feel like, like Didi did better this year. Oh, you're right. Yes, that's true. Didi did a better job of like exploring what the technology was like without it being the sole purpose of the joke. Like, Oh, we were so lame with our dialogue back then. Um, but if you're going to stay up all night for midnight, a great way to do that is with our friends at Coffee Brothers, Coffee Bros. We love them. I mean, I guess if you're at a party, you're drinking, but you want to like stay up and like watch the ball drop. I can't make it to midnight Pacific time anymore. Yeah. I watch the ball drop and that's it. I go to bed. Yeah. I watch it. Yeah. Thank you. East coast. And then, but if you wanted to stay up, you could, uh, breakfast 15 is our code with our friends at Coffee Brothers. It gets you 15% off of all of their coffee. Shipping is free when you order at least $50 worth of coffee. Right now the holiday blend is in and that's why it feels like Christmas. I know it's kind of like Christmas year round at your house, Alonzo. You've got the shirt going and all your little trees and everything. But when the holiday blend comes to me, it tells me, okay, now it's yeah, no, you can, you can set your calendar by it. And now's the time to snag it. Cause you know, it is a limited time deal. So yeah, get that, that holiday blend is delicious, but yeah, Coffee Bros all year round. Uh, yummy. And, uh, you know, they will, they'll, they'll keep you, they'll keep your eyes open. Yes, for sure. So, um, Y2K, I'm going to say four, like I laughed here and there and enjoyed some of the pop culture stuff, but, uh, yeah, I felt very thin. Yeah. I'm like a 4.2. It's it, I was, I was on its side for a while and then it was like, it just.