Y2K

"Y2K" has to be one of the strangest films A24 has released. A nostalgia-filled comedy following a group of teenagers navigating a 1999 where the bug was real and created a post-apocalyptic world doesn't exactly scream "made by A24." That very real paranoia train missed me, so I can't relate. I went in open-minded, hoping for something crazy. After seeing it, it's utterly ridiculous, but it oddly works!

To start the positives, all the actors delivered solid performances, especially Jaeden Martell, Julian Dennison, and Rachel Zegler as Eli, Danny, and Laura, respectively. They all have charisma and pleasant comedic timing, and I wound up caring to see if Eli would get together with Laura.

I also feel that Kyle Mooney did great work for his directorial debut. I've seen a few of his films, but I completely forgot that he was the writer and star in "Brigsby Bear." I have a tremendous amount of respect for that film and believe it single-handedly got me into art-house movies. Mooney understands how to make comedy bits land while sprinkling dramatic and horror moments here.

Speaking of comedy, it's not the best in the genre, but many jokes had me laughing. One has to do a Sisqó song and not to discredit the rest of the experience, but that was the best part of the entire film. Unfortunately, the rest of the comedy is hit-or-miss, but it's hilarious when the electronics come to life and begin their murderous rampage!

Finally, the film runs at 1 hour and 30 minutes. Though there are negatives that I'll get to in a second, the runtime is not one of them. It's never tedious, and I was always curious about what insane things the film would do next.

I'm surprised with how much good is in the film, but sadly, a few things were holding it back from being a classic. However, it does have a high chance of being a cult classic.

The first semi-negative, perhaps the most obvious problem, is that the movie feels like it came out in 1999. Sometimes, it works, but numerous references went over my head, left me confused, or felt dated. Those who lived through Y2K will likely understand them more than a general moviegoer today. In addition, while I wanted Eli and Laura to get together, the narrative has cliches. I won't go into detail to avoid spoilers, but it did feel like the film wanted to emulate one that came out in 1999. I've seen a handful of movies released from that year, and "Y2K" is easily comparable to those films, for better or worse.

Remember when I said the comedy was inconsistent? Indeed, many jokes didn't land, I couldn't understand or were hilariously bad. For that last part, and I'll be vague, a character knows that the world is falling apart but decides to do something idiotic. The decision's harmless with the right expertise, but a miscalculation leads to the character's death. This character didn't need technology to go, only stupidity. I was baffled and couldn't help but burst out laughing. It was an avoidable death. The deaths leading up to this moment were all technology's fault! You'll know which scene I'm talking about when you see the movie!

Overall, "Y2K" is one of the year's most ridiculous yet charming films. It won't be for everyone, as it never takes itself seriously. You'll likely have a good time if you go in with those expectations!

Technically, the performances, Kyle Mooney's directing, and the impressive practical effects make the technical score an 8/10.

For the enjoyment score, I found it fun, but you need to go in with the right expectations. Expect a highly unrealistic, bordering on screwball, yet always entertaining time that never cares about logic. On those fronts, the enjoyment score is a 7/10. It's an amusing ride under the right circumstances, and I'm excited to see what Mooney does next!

It's hard to tell exactly where this movie goes wrong. Maybe it's that the beginning doesn't get you firmly enough on the leads side. Could have used better humor to do that, or maybe some more relatable and less cliched characterization.

Whatever it is, when this movie started leaning into its emotional moments, and you can tell it's trying because of the music and style, it ended up alienating me because I didn't feel what it was trying to make me feel. And that continued right up thru the end of the movie.

I'd say about half the humor landed for me, but that's not always the filmmakers fault.

Most of the characters felt very stereotypical, and felt like they were trying to be brought to life for us, by just a couple extra zany details, instead anything that felt authentic.

What it felt like, Kyle Mooney and Evan Winter forgive me if this wrong, is that money got behind this movie too early, or too quickly, and the script didn't make it past a first draft. Maybe, too, all the comedy was written in, and not improvised in the way that great comedy movies rely on for the real snappy humor that pops. And, I think in Editting they were giving the humor too much of a pause; too much space for what should have been audience laughter, in a way that also alienated me and probably others. And most of the humor was pretty toothless as well, especially when you compare it to the movies it's drawing influence from.

So unfortunately this movie just feels mediocre; lazily trying to be heartfelt; I wish I had felt toward it what the filmmakers clearly thought I'd feel.

Imagine an SNL Sketch blended with apocalypse vibes, nostalgia, technology, and 90s insanity blended together, mixed up with a bunch of acids that makes things chaotic and all over the place. That's what Y2K is, but the opposite of good.

Kyle Mooney puts all his efforts with the direction, writing and atmosphere approach on the setting and narrative and he does offer some fun vibes of a disaster comedy. Including good production designs and a good setting. The performances from Jaeden Martell, Julian Dennison, and Rachel Zegler are pretty solid but nothing really stood out.

Unfortunately, the movie does feel like a satire that doesn't take itself seriously, but the issue was it's repetitive atmosphere, direction, and characters that are poorly handled drags the movie down a lot. Almost having most of the charm of the 90s and non-serious fun to feel blown away into nothing.

It feels like Mooney is creating a new Superbad and a satire of the trashy 90s comedy, but kind of misses the point of what made them good and makes it repetitive.

It's not great. I like Brigsby Bear, I'm happy to see Mooney still being able to make works of dumb fun but this wasn't it.

This could have been good. The concept is there, you have a cast that was willing to put themselves in goofy situations and obviously the budget to create something memorable. What went wrong? The limp direction and the forced screenplay.

Firstly, the acting is awful. Not because of the cast, but because the screenplay is written with so many hamfisted jokes thrown in that it gave the actors little room breathe, not to mention these are not traditionally comic actors. Felt bad for the leads, because I know they are capable of much more than this.

Secondly, the script needs more work. Nobody talked like this in the 90s. You got the references and the slang, but none of the delivery. Not a single bit of dialog felt natural to the scene. The comedy only works maybe a quarter of the time because the jokes are so sudden and forced.

Thirdly, where is the shock value? For a movie like this to work, there needed to be more shock. A bit more graphic violence, maybe a bit more nudity. Something to make me say "Whoa!". It felt tame for the subject matter and general feel of the film. Should've taken the murderous robot scheme further.

Overall, it was trash. Unbelievable, not funny and childish. I would only recommend watching it if it's free on streaming and you have absolutely nothing else to watch on a rainy afternoon.

1 brain implant out of 5.

Y2K tries to take the formula of popular teen comedies like 'Superbad' and wrap it around tech horror but it ultimately fails to give us anything but a mess. It relies hard on your knowledge and memories of Y2K, 1999/2000 trends in music, and low-budget horror films to carry the humor but its story falls apart halfway through. The 3rd act is a mess only saved by one of the most ridiculous cameos with jokes at their own expense.

In the end, Y2K can be funny with some laugh-out-loud moments, but most of those moments are at how ridiculous what just happened was. If you were a teen to 20 something in 1999/2000 you can find something to enjoy with the film but ultimately doesn't give enough to warrant another visit.

Brad: 5 Josh: 4.5-5 Final: 5.