Kyle Mooney’s directorial debut Y2K feels a lot like a rejected SNL pitch. The film begins as a standard run-of-the-mill teen buddy comedy set against the backdrop of the turn of the millennium. Jaeden Martell and Julian Dennison play two best friends with serious SuperBad best friend energy on their way to a Y2K party. The table and plot turns when the film starts to imagine an alternative universe where the Y2K bug ends up being a much bigger issue than the real-life hysteria.

Mooney does an excellent job filling his film with 90s references and an incredible soundtrack. The film uses a host of practical effects to bring the Y2K apocalypse to life and it looks great on screen. But even at a brisk 90 minutes, the movie plays out its best jokes early, leaving the audience with only the same jokes over and over.

Superbad

The premise of Y2K feels totally on brand for Mooney and features a lot of his signature humor. Jonah Hill has been getting a lot of press as the producer of this film and the beginning of Y2K plays out almost beat for beat like a SuperBad remake. The two leads are best friends who make boner jokes and lust after each other parents. They even get ridiculed out front of a convenience store by a cooler kid. It’s tough to say if this was purposeful but most of the first act feels like a ripoff of Hill’s classic 2007 comedy.

The film takes a sharp turn at the midway point, turning into a violent, bloody horror comedy. When midnight strikes and the new millennium dawns, all the electronics on earth come to life. And they are hell-bent on enslaving the human race. There is a deeper social commentary hidden here about our reliance on technology. It’s an interesting theme and concept, especially set against the technologically primitive year 2000.

SNL Digital Short

The film plays out like a very long SNL sketch. When the robots turn and people start getting mangled by hedge trimmers and dishwashers, it’s undeniably funny. But the setup takes so long, and the marketing ruins the twist so we are left to just laugh at the imagery, not the turn.

In a traditional SNL sketch, there would be no prior knowledge of the premise. We would begin with a standard teen comedy before turning into this horror comedy. The turn is one of the funniest parts of the movie, but it’s softened a bit by our knowledge of the plot going in. It would have been nice if the marketing could have saved these reveals for the film but it’s clear A24 is banking hard on Y2K and its subversive history premise.

Never Trust a Computer

Once the plot starts in earnest, the film loses its footing. With the big twist revealed, the film has to recycle a lot of the same jokes to remain entertaining. Watching a disc changer hurl CDs like throwing stars is still comical, but some of the magic is lost after an hour of runtime.

The practical effects Mooney and his team use, though, are stellar and allows the film to retain its late 90s aesthetic. The cyborg monsters in the film are essentially amalgamations of CRT monitors, stereos, and other pre-Y2K technology. All of these machines assemble into the shape of a human-like creature that looks great on film and makes for fun enemy fodder.

Nostalgia

Y2K is packed to the brim with nostalgia. From the Alicia Silverstone cameo to Fred Durst playing a major character, the film is precisely direct with its target audience. The icing on the cake is the incredible soundtrack throughout the film. I would bet with the practical effects and generally tame sets that most of this film’s budget went to securing music from Sisquo and Chumbawamba.

The music certainly adds to the charm of Y2K, even if it’s lacking in other areas. It’s great seeing Fred Durst sing Faith acapella, but so much of the movie hinges on a “remember this” vibe that it’s tough to satisfy a feature-length film. The actors are doing their best with the script but the film is closer to a trip down memory lane than a compelling narrative.

Party Like It’s Y2K

Y2K is a fun, if not flawed film. The premise and setting are great, but it’s an idea more suited for an SNL sketch or even a comedy TV anthology episode. Stretching the narrative out to feature length forces the premise to re-use jokes and continually create higher and higher stakes. Watching household appliances murder teenagers can only sustain so much of a movie’s runtime.

Still, it’s incredible to see studios like A24 taking a chance on such a wild idea. There are few studios who would distribute a film like this, let alone give it such a large marketing budget. Y2K is packed with jokes so the film may age better with time, but at release, it’s only the second-best A24 movie of the year to feature Fred Durst.