SXSW EXCLUSIVE: 'Y2K' Review: Doing Fine In An Apocalyptic 1999 [SXSW 2024]
A Hilarious parade of references which may be too much for the younger audience
If you experienced the dry uneventful fart that was the culmination of the Y2K hype of the turn of the millenium then you, like me may be left wondering: what if? What if the turn of the millenium did trigger apocalypse? What if all the electronics gained sentience and decided to eradicate the human race? What if it was all written by Kyle Mooney? The film Y2K answers all these questions and more. Questions like, can you hack the planet and what’s Fred Durst up too? The answers will shock you. Well, maybe not shock you, but they will entertain you. As millennial-coded as this film is, the only issue is that it may be a tad too millennial-coded. The fear is that generations born after or within a few years prior to the turn of the millennium may need to do some major research to understand why AOL instant messenger is so funny.
The plot of Y2K doesn’t need more than a highschool diploma to be able to dissect. In fact, the only education you really need to understand the plot is a tertiary knowledge the movie Superbad. Basically, kids not popular, kids have crush, kids go to party, kids get popular, then apocalyptic Fred Durst. The plot of the film will never and is not meant to win any awards. Films like this are meant to be vessels for the parade of jokes and references to come, such as a banana in the banana split. You may enjoy the banana but in retrospect the real hero of the dessert would be the ice cream and various sauces, nuts, whipped toppings and the occasional cherry. There may be a few misguided and sheltered individuals who hold the banana in the highest of regards but those people are often psychotic and/or homeschooled. The plot is what it is and if you were looking for somthing deeper then please do us all a favor and stick to Italian arthouse films, I hear Lina Wertmüller’s Seven Beauties could use another video essay.
The casting is a real who’s who of young talent. Jaeden Martell is of course fantastic as the lead in the awkward and gangly socially awkward industry standard lead who somehow gets the hot love interest for such films. On a scale of Scott Melchlowicz to Michael Cera, he ranks about a DJ Qualls. This kid is destined for greatness after he finishes puberty in another year. In the funny best friend role is Julian Dennison, better known as Ricky Baker to those in “the Know.” Dennison is charismatic, has natural comedic talent and is already best friends with Ryan Reynolds which is all you need in this business. It’s hard to determine what Hollywood wants out of this young man but if he keeps turning in great comedic performances then one can only hope that his future is closer to that of Jim Carrey than Jim Belushi. Rachel Zegler is proof that you can go really far if your first movie is a Steven Spielberg production. She does nothing wrong in the film, playing the unfortunately typecasted role of popular girl who is smarter than she looks. But it is hard not to expect more from her, yes she skipped the Disney TV show phase of her career as a Actor/Singer but Zendaya went through that phase and now she is doing romantic dramas about Tennis threesomes. This kind of film is good for her exposure, let’s just hope it helps her land somthing more substantial than a film in a dying superhero franchise. Rounding out the cast of characters is Eduardo Franco who is an absolute must have in any movie where the lead has yet to drink a beer legally, Kyle Mooney as the very familiar 90’s staple of white guy with dreads, Daniel Zolgahdri as a pretentious underground hip-hop fan and Lachlan Watson as a pretentious Nu Metal fan, both of whom just need to sleep together and get it over with. The surprise casting was the inclusion of Nu Metal icon Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit. For those who are unaware, Mr. Durst has been directing such hits as The Longshots and The Fanatic. Okay, yes those are not hits in the “traditional” sense but if you have not seen John Travolta’s performance in the fanatic then what are you even doing with your life? His presence in the film is relatively inoffensive and actually serves the plot much in the way that The Harlem Globetrotters contributed to the plot of their Scooby-Doo episode. That’s right Fred Durst, be proud knowing that you have done Curly, Meadowlark and Gip proud.
In terms of production, the film is obviously a Kyle Mooney production. If anyone was wondering what the film is like, look up any of Mooney’s Chris Fitzpatrick sketches on YouTube, I suggest “The Fight." The production is a little crisper, with more expensive cameras, but the essence of the sketch is the exact same as the film. Every word on the script can be traced to Mooney’s signature awkward confidence. The design language of the film is extremely late 90’s. There is a charm to the low-ish budget design of the monsters and graphics that can be enjoyed by anyone not unlike the design that goes into the typical cinematic SNL sketch. The only worrisome aspect of the film is the sheer number of references that are themselves the joke. Some of the biggest laughs of the film are just references to the 90’s. Jokes such as: remember AOL, remember Nu Metal, and remember Taebo… Those kinds of references are good for people of a certain age but one would expect a younger audience member to pull out a phone mid-movie to google: Who the hell is Fred Durst?
In terms of buddy highschool comedies, this one ranks about the same level as Book Smart. But one can only speculate as to where this particular niche genre will go next now that disaster film has been thrown into the mix. Will we see as buddy Highschool comedy set in the Old West next? Or maybe Finn Wolfhard and Gaten Matarazzo will wo through hell and back to attend a house party thrown by the popular kids but In Space! Sounds fun honestly. Let’s just hope it’s not filled to the brim with 2090’s references or we’d might need to do some Googling.