Review by Nicholas Porteous for Mr. Will Wong
At the tail-end of 1999, many wondered if there would be some kind of worldwide technological meltdown when we crossed over into the year 2000 because computer clocks weren’t programmed to represent years using four digits. Maybe the year “00” would force laptops to turn into bricks and airplanes to fall from the sky. Of course, nothing happened. Kyle Mooney‘s Y2K imagines a world where those fears were completely justified and then some. At the stroke of midnight, tech doesn’t just go haywire, it murders or enslaves every human in sight while building itself into an army of humanoid robots. On top of that, Y2K is a Superbad-esque coming-of-age period piece in which our hero Eli (Jaden Martell) endlessly obsesses over Laura (Rachel Zegler) despite the neverending onslaught of death and destruction that envelops them and their dwindling ragtag team of outcasts. To be fair, no one else seems particularly affected by the grisly deaths of their friends either.
Y2K is a dumpster fire. It’s so incoherent, so unfunny, so utterly misdirected I felt embarrassed to be in the same theatre. I’ve been a Kyle Mooney fan since his time on SNL, and I’m tempted to say he shouldn’t make another movie after this one. The one thing Y2K has going for it is nostalgia, but even that has been rendered with far more love and accuracy by the likes of Pen15 or the aforementioned Superbad. I’ll also give it some credit for attempting to strike a somewhat original vibe between Disaster movie and high school Comedy, not unlike This is The End. But the dissonance between death, attempted Comedy and Romance could not be more awkward here. We’re expected to buy into the stakes of a world being torn apart by robots AND the timid loser character trying to date the ‘cool girl’. Neither thread is competent enough to work on its own. Put alongside each other, they both feel even worse. Why is everyone singing Chumbawamba instead of mourning their brutally-murdered loved ones? There’s no gravity or consistent stakes to enable the comedy.
The self-building killer robots are conceptually unbelievable — a failure of imagination when it comes to late 90s tech going awry — and they almost literally fall apart with any physical effort. These robots are so slow and unwieldy, I got the impression that if any one of them walked over an uneven patch of grass, they’d be reduced to rubble. Mooney mostly denies us any visual involving a robot physically overpowering a human (which happens a lot) because it’s clearly impossible.
But let’s overlook the stupid robots that are supposed to threaten humanity. Y2K isn’t intended to be a Visual Effects showcase or a serious Disaster movie. Maybe there just wasn’t a budget for any of that. At its core, Y2K is a movie about characters, right??? But the characters are just as shabby as the robots. Eli gives a muddled call-to-action speech towards the end and is rightfully mocked for it. Multiple supporting characters want to be rappers, but can barely cobble together a single verse (and it’s legitimately painful to watch, not ironically hilarious). Kyle Mooney‘s stoner video store clerk is dumb beyond words. Only Rachel Zegler appears to have credible skills as a hacker, but aside from remembering the plot of Independence Day, we’re never meant to understand how or why she’s good at it. Y2K has a mean attitude towards all of its characters –snarkily laughing at their faults while mercilessly writing off any potential semblance of charm or redemption. And let me repeat: no one reconsiders their outlook or priorities when the world turns into a hellscape. Crushes and smooches are the only things that matter to these ludicrous people.
Skip Y2K.
VVS Films release Y2K December 6, 2024.
For advertising opportunites please contact mrwill@mrwillwong.com