Directed By Kyle Mooney

Starring – Jaeden Martell, Rachel Zegler, Julian Dennison

The Plot – Two high school nobodies (Martell, Dennison) make the decision to crash the last major celebration before the new millennium on New Year’s Eve 1999. The night becomes even crazier than they could have ever dreamed when the clock strikes midnight.

Rated R for bloody violence, strong sexual content/nudity, pervasive language, and teen drug and alcohol use.

Y2K | Official Trailer HD | A24

POSITIVES

Being that this is an alternate timeline of a societal farce that never came to fruition, there’s the capability of conjuring something truly terrifying to authenticate the feeling of uncertainty that was New Year’s Eve 1999, and while I have many issues with the execution, one simply can’t underestimate the abundance of ambition that is littered in almost every area of the production values, particularly the soundtrack and production designs, which not only brought back an unlimited allowance of nostalgic impulses to trigger memories about a person or place, but also showcase the appreciation that Mooney has for effective filmmaking. On the former, the songs themselves don’t exactly serve a contextual purpose, instead relishing as remember-berries meant to elicit an infectious charm on the audience, but linearly all of the tracks, with the exception of Sisqó’s ‘Thong Song’ all dropped before the change of the millennium, with a variety of genres and artists that are impressive to helm under A24’s usual budgetary limitations. As for the designs, the subtleties of fashion threads and set decoration certainly go a long way towards immersing us in the dated restrictions of the distinguished setting, but the dominance of practicality used for maniacal machines fighting back against their human oppressors was most impressive, both in scope and scale, resulting in some clever uses of imaginative expression to the designs that were an absolute treat to periodically experience, especially during the climactic third act, where our protagonists are a bit overwhelmed in the numbers against their android adversaries. Beyond this, another subtle touch that I appreciated was in the periodic shifts to 16mm handheld footage that stemmed from one character’s usage of it throughout the film, giving it that indie flavor of quality that A24 was at least originally known for, all the while making the visual textures feel grainier and grittier in ways that lent themselves effortlessly to some of the darker beats in tone that the movie was never quite as good at earning or exploiting. I don’t say this often, but I think ‘Y2K’ would’ve been better if it was a found footage movie, as the crystal clear consistencies of 35mm don’t exactly carry a visual similarity towards watching something set in that particular age, especially for an experimental director like Mooney, who certainly didn’t reserve himself on pushing the envelope both visually and thematically during his superior debut directorial effort, ‘Brigsby Bear’.

NEGATIVES

Kyle Mooney has managed the impossible with ‘Y2K’, in that his film has made me question if my memories of a particular age were enhanced by the nostalgia of being a teenager with rose colored glasses on. That might sound like a compliment, but it’s more of a back-handed one, as nearly nothing that he attempts with his latest film ever materializes into anything provocative or even temporarily entertaining to truly capitalize on an idea that, to my recollection, nobody else has even attempted, in turn making this one of the most frustratingly arduous investments that I have faced in a film that I have looked so forward to. It starts with the flat consistencies of the humor, which with only producing a single laugh out of me in 88 minutes of run time, made me feel as old and crotchety as an old man snarling at the ignorance of loud and obnoxious youth leaving their imprint on culture. Part of the problem with the gags certainly stems from a script that lacks ingenuity, especially with setups so effortlessly telegraphed that they can be sniffed out before they’ve even completely materialized, but I think more of the blame here comes from Mooney, whose big screen comedic timing and editing doesn’t know how to present them in ways that make them punch the loudest during their deliveries, leaving overwhelming silence afterwards for audiences to laugh, but made all the more polarizing in a 30% occupied theater, where nobody is laughing aloud. Comedy isn’t the only missed opportunity, as tonally the film is a mess as it makes its way through a minefield of abruptly inconsequential shifts that it didn’t even remotely earn in a movie this raunchy and juvenile. That’s not to say it’s impossible, as ‘Superbad’ proved that a movie about immature adolescence can supplant an underlining of heart about the inevitability of long-distance friendships, but here the characters are so thinly written and one-dimensional that them suddenly having a conscience for sentimentality feels forced and ill-timed, and between moments where characters elicit watery eyes during long-winded diatribes, and the lukewarm luster of the movie’s romantic subplot (More on that in a second), I couldn’t help but groan whenever this movie even had the audacity to attempt to dig deeper, especially in that the script feels so sporadic in its storytelling that there’s no sign at something emotionally profound tugging just beneath the surface. This shallow script also lends itself to the abundance of characters we’re unfortunately saddled with, who are as agonizingly annoying as crude dialogue and stunted development can endure, especially with a supporting cast that shockingly starts to takeover significant screen time from the central trio. With the untimely loss of one key character quite early in the film, I admired that the film had the fearlessness to even go there, but what we’re ultimately left with are these pee-brained potheads who proclaim themselves a lot smarter than they actually are, and considering when one of them is ushered off of their mortal coil, and I felt no semblance of impact or suspense with their dilemmas, it proves how little time and energy went into the characterization, with the worst of these examples sadly being the frozen tundra that is the romantic dynamic between Jaeden Martel and Rachel Zegler. To be fair, their performances aren’t exactly terrible, as I feel both Martel and Zegler are doing everything that’s asked of them, even if Martel feels lifted from a serious drama that obviously isn’t this one, but their complete lack of convincing chemistry casts an overhanging cloud of disbelief on the proceedings that made this feel like high-schooler stoner fanfiction of the most meandering variety, where never in a million years would I buy for even a single solitary second that Zegler is drawn to him because of some technological link in connection that they both share. Because the film spends so much time on this rudimentary romance and the stacking spuds that surround them, instead of the hostile takeover overwhelming their town that audiences paid to see, it grinds the pacing to a screeching halt that begins almost immediately with a prolonged opening act that should’ve been summarized into 15 minutes of screen time, and as a result lends itself to these pocketed moments of boredom along the journey that completely obliterates any semblance of urgency or vulnerability that so many of these disaster movies require to feel compelling, coming and going with about the same level of impact that the actual Y2K landed on that night when everyone was watching. Even the surprise cameos are lacking with influence, as Alicia Silverstone, who is credited on the posters, only appears during two throwaway scenes, and the other one, the aforementioned rockstar, muddles his way into the background by the movie’s climax, after a meaningful introduction that felt like he could’ve and probably should’ve been the hijacking protagonist for the rest of the movie. It certainly brought back feelings of the kind of appearance porn that Marvel is currently making an industry out of, but beyond that wasted away the potential from doing something shocking or permanent with the means of their lively influence, instead servicing the sporadic spontaneity of the script’s aforementioned consistency that never gelled together as one cohesive idea.

OVERALL
‘Y2K’ is a momentless dud that drops the ball on a compelling idea of an alternate timeline that fortunately never came to be, and one that never feels any more interesting, as a result of Mooney’s foggy and incoherent execution that required one too many tokes to properly conceive. Despite meaningful production values and an infectiously eclectic soundtrack that transports audiences to a simpler time, the energy and excitement are wiped from the room long before midnight, leaving nostalgic porn that falls a bit limp in thematic substance.

My Grade: 4/10 or D-