Y2K Will Make You Nostalgic for a Funnier Comedy

As someone who was also 15 years old at the end of the ’90s, I can wholeheartedly say that Kyle Mooney’s new horror-comedy, Y2K, is a nostalgia trip down memory lane for us elder millennials. The movie is like a time capsule filled with burned CDs, VHS rentals, and AIM messages, all of which will undoubtedly trigger some fond memories.

Speaking from someone who was 15 years old towards the end of the ’90s and still have my Family Values ticket stub as proof: The movie Y2K, a horror-comedy by Kyle Mooney, formerly of Saturday Night Live, does an excellent job of showcasing the culture of the Windows 98 generation. True to its name, the film is set on the last night of the last millennium and begins with a swarm of flying toasters – a screensaver image that will undoubtedly bring back memories of dial-up internet and AOL Instant Messenger chirps. Mooney, who was also 15 in ’99, seems to have approached his directorial debut as a time capsule of significant artifacts from the late 20th century: burned CDs, VHS tapes, jokes about Bill Clinton, marathon gaming sessions on N64 consoles, communal karaoke performances of “Thong Song” and “Tubthumping.” If you still have a soft spot for any of these items, you’re likely to chuckle throughout the film, although even the intended audience of nostalgic older millennials might find bigger laughs hard to come by.

Mooney, along with his writing partner Evan Winter, who was his childhood friend, haven’t merely acknowledged the pop culture of ’99. Instead, they’ve crafted a work that bears a resemblance to the abundance of high-school movies from that year, while the relationship between the main characters is more reminiscent of the dynamic seen in Jonah Hill’s later film “Superbad”. The outspoken character in this story is Danny (portrayed by Julian Dennison, famous for his role in “Hunt for the Wilderpeople”), who persuades his Cera-like friend Eli (Jaeden Martell, known from the “It” movies) to abandon their New Year’s Eve plans to watch Arnold Schwarzenegger’s comedy “Junior” and instead attend a massive house party thrown by one of their classmates. As the camera swiftly moves around this gathering, showcasing different groups, it becomes clear that Mooney is drawing inspiration from the teen stereotypes seen in movies like “Can’t Hardly Wait” and “She’s All That” from the WB era.

In the initial stages of the movie’s 93-minute duration, it takes some time before the real technology-gone-awry premise of Y2K is introduced: At the stroke of midnight, the machines start behaving erratically, reflecting all the unfulfilled fears about the clock change that didn’t occur in reality. This unexpected twist is quite inventive, and it becomes even more intriguing as Mooney deliberately delays it, making the story seem like a harmless teen comedy being infected by a malicious computer virus. Suddenly, what appeared to be a wild night of teen antics transforms into a horrifying scene where bullies are brutally attacked by a murderous vacuum cleaner. Since the trailer has already given away this late twist, it would be unfortunate to withhold this information.

In a nutshell, Y2K tries to be innovative in its concept but falls short in execution. It struggles to smoothly transition between genres. The creatures created by WETA have a nostalgic appeal, reminding us of the haphazard mechanical menace from Virus (a 1999 movie). However, they aren’t particularly frightening. Although Mooney tries to evoke emotion through unexpected deaths, it mostly leaves the audience feeling jarred. The humor is too broad for us to care about the fate of the teen characters, who are stereotypes similar to those found in ’90s comedies. The issue with basing characters on the freaks and geeks of ’90s comedies is that these characters were already an improvement over the Brat Pack characters John Hughes had assembled in his Breakfast Club.

I find it might take a more skilled and steady directorial hand to effectively balance laughter and terror in a movie like this. Mooney seems to be still finding his footing, as his action sequences can be messy at times, bordering on disappointing. For instance, the scene where his character, the quirky video store clerk with the most memorable lines, faces off against one of the robots in an anime-inspired manner, feels like it lacks the intended punch. The buildup is lengthy, and the joke doesn’t quite land. Many scenes are marred by unfunny ADR jokes, which ironically, make things worse rather than better. It’s a case of less being more. To be honest, I was taken aback by the realization that the film was shot by Bill Pope, who has worked on masterpieces like ‘The Matrix’. Compared to his previous work, Y2K looks decidedly inferior.

Following the release of “I Saw the TV Glow” last spring, this is the second film from A24 this year that reflects upon the suburban desolation of the late ’90s. Interestingly, both films incorporate the same casting choice, using a specific and iconic musical star of 1999 as a symbol of cultural shorthand. Essentially, these movies are set at the dawn of the internet age, a time when the world was on the brink of becoming perpetually and irrevocably online.

It’s not impossible to imagine Mooney, a smart millennial absurdist with some real thoughts about our relationship to technology, pulling harder on that thread. But Y2K doesn’t aim for much more than easy laughs and a buzz of “remember when?” recognition. Coming from a guy whose sketches were often too weird for SNL, it’s disappointingly conventional. And coming from the star and screenwriter of Brigsby Bear, which actually interrogated nostalgia, it’s too referential and reverential. The film’s last half-hour collapses into an unfunny, extended appearance by that aforementioned legacy artist — the kind of star cameo that The Simpsons often succumbs to these days, passing off a famous person playing themselves as the height of comedy. By the end, everyone here has just settled for partying like it’s 1999.

2024-12-06 21:54

Y2K Will Make You Nostalgic for a Funnier Comedy

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