It’s been too long since we last saw a theatrical release from comedic dynamo David Wain. Since the 2014 romcom-spoofing They Came Together, the writer/director has worked with Netflix to create a Doug Kenney biopic, two Wet Hot American Summer spin-off shows and the hospital drama send-up series Medical Police. Now he’s back to the cineplex with the abundantly silly Gail Daughtry And The Celebrity Sex Pass and while it’s not the strongest effort in Wain’s canon, it features enough moments of absurd comedy that concisely epitomize his singular brand of humor. Existing somewhere between the high-concept yuks of Role Models and the go-for-broke sketch pacing of The Ten, Wain’s latest work doesn’t feel as structurally sound as his output from the aughts but delivers its fair share of laughs from his most impressive cast yet.
We meet bubbly hairdresser Gail Daughtry (played by Zoey Deutch) two weeks before she’s set to marry her fiancé Tom (Michael Cassidy) in their quaint suburban town of Willowbrook, Kansas. Inspired by a conversation with her friend and Bluebird Salon co-worker Otto (Miles Gutierrez-Riley), Gail asks Tom about a “celebrity sex pass”, effectively a get-out-of-jail-free card for one consequence-free hookup with someone famous. Gobsmacked by how quickly Tom is able to cash in on his pick, Gail travels with Otto to Los Angeles for a stylist convention so she can bed her choice before her wedding day. After an accidental briefcase swap upon her arrival in the LAX terminal, Gail unwittingly puts herself in the crosshairs of Ludovica (Sabrina Impacciatore), a criminal mastermind looking to disrupt the global economy with confidential intel.
Joining Gail on her now-perilous journey to make things even with her fiancé are an aspiring movie agent, played by Ben Wang, and a paparazzo looking for redemption, played by the film’s co-writer and Wain regular Ken Marino. Fans of Reno 911! will also be happy to see alums like Thomas Lennon and Kerri Kenney-Silver, who both collaborated with Wain previously in The Ten, pop up as memorably goofy characters. There are a few blink-and-you’ll-miss-them cameos from even bigger stars going back to the Wet Hot American Summer days. Though the film hinges on the presence of a couple well-known actors playing themselves — given that one of them is the target for the titular tryst — Gail Daughtry And The Celebrity Sex Pass doesn’t do all that much to either play into or subvert their existing personas. Had the film been able to conceal Gail’s choice from its marketing or selected a celebrity not already known for comedy chops, it could’ve made for a fun surprise.
All of the performers commit fully to the movie’s screwy version of Hollywood and as the doe-eyed lead on an outlandish adventure, Zoey Deutch holds the center beautifully. Her ability to tap into Gail’s “aw shucks” naiveté, while being able to switch into bloodthirsty or lascivious gears on a dime, evinces Deutch’s comic versatility. She has a similar kind of magnetic effervescence that Kristen Bell had in her breakout role for Forgetting Sarah Marshall back in 2008. Deutch has fine foils in Sabrina Impacciatore’s Italian villainess and her pair of henchmen, played by Wain mainstays Joe Lo Truglio and Mather Zickel. As the hapless Sergio and Niccolo, they spend an embarrassing amount of screen time searching the dark web for leads, when much more obvious clues are readily available.
As with his previous endeavors, Wain makes a meal of whatever dramatically familiar beat or trope strikes his fancy in any given moment, pulverizing it beyond recognition with an exaggerated repetition that’s become his trademark. But at a macro level, whatever genre he seems to be poking fun at this time never feels fully realized. I gather the closest type of film he seems to be satirizing is one in the romantic self-discovery category à la Eat, Pray, Love but the movie doesn’t feel specific enough in its parody to land on that front. There are also numerous The Wizard Of Oz allusions — I take “Gail Daughtry” to be a play on Dorothy Gale — but the inverted parallels to that classic tale never fully materialize into meaningful pastiche. Even though Gail Daughtry And The Celebrity Sex Pass isn’t as conceptually well-realized as Wain’s other outings, there are still plenty of hilarious gags sprinkled throughout to give it a pass.
Score – 3/5
New movies coming this weekend:
Playing in theaters is The Odyssey, an epic fantasy starring Matt Damon and Tom Holland, adapting Homer’s ancient Greek tale about the king of Ithaca’s long and perilous journey home, in which he encounters several mythical beings, after the Trojan War.
Streaming on Hulu is They Fight, a coming-of-age sports drama starring André Holland and Wendell Pierce, following a reformed ex-con who finds redemption by coaching a motley crew of teenage boxers at a local youth facility in Washington, D.C.
Premiering on Disney+ is Descendants: Wicked Wonderland, a fantasy sequel starring Kylie Cantrall and Malia Baker, continuing the adventures of the daughters of the Queen Of Hearts and of Cinderella as they play host to the Kingdom Cup Games.
Reprinted by permission of Whatzup