The director of Wet Hot American Summer is bringing us the wet, hot American dream, which is, of course, the rumored celebrity sex pass. It’s sort of like a hall pass, but incredibly specific. If this one random person I idolize beyond all measure were, for some reason, to walk into my life, point directly at me, and demand that I follow them to the bedchambers, I would be able to do so knowing that we had a prior agreement. This person is the hall pass.
It’s a pretty nifty gag for most couples because the idea that anybody would ever actually obtain such a goal is laughable. Think about how many men out there probably have supermodels on their lists and likely have never even met them. Nor will they ever. But the premise of Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass takes that concept and says, yes, but what if they did? What if you’re about to marry a man, and his celebrity sex pass happens to be adjacent to him and fully amenable to the concept of the sex pass to begin with? Would you really be okay with it?
In the case of Gail Daughtry, played by Zoey Deutch, the answer is that she’s not really sure. Gail feels like societal pressure says she’s supposed to be okay with it, but she’s really not. So, in turn, she’s pressured by her best friend Otto, played by Miles Gutierrez-Riley, to follow him to Los Angeles and admit that she, too, has a celebrity sex crush. That crush is Jon Hamm. Naturally, while in Los Angeles, Gail will have to embark on a journey to obtain Jon Hamm so that her impending marriage can be even. But will Jon Hamm be as amenable as her fiancé’s sex pass?
The screenplay is written by director David Wain and Ken Marino, a Wet Hot American Summer alum, and the cast features several people from Wain’s usual orbit, including Marino, Michael Ian Black, and Joe Lo Truglio, as well as some interesting and fresh faces. Of course, there’s Jon Hamm and John Slattery, because apparently they are contractually obligated to remain in each other’s general proximity, but then there’s also Ben Wang, who was in Karate Kid: Legends and The Long Walk. Sabrina Impacciatore is also in the cast, although I would argue that her role need not exist. So, it’s a little bit of the familiar, the new, and the really new.
The problem with Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass is that it’s incredibly campy in nature, and it tries a little too hard by roping in this criminal underground presence that Gail accidentally interrupts. Eventually, henchmen are following Gail all over Los Angeles with plans to put a bullet in her head, even though she’s just some random girl from the Midwest without a thought in her head at that moment other than Jon Hamm. It’s a weird juxtaposition of plot lines that didn’t work for me. Luckily, it is very much the C plot of the film and not nearly as important as the characters and interactions Gail encounters as the movie progresses.
In fact, Gail and Otto end up picking up a string of new allies who follow them across Los Angeles, from a lowly agency worker to a paparazzo and even John Slattery himself, all united in the quest to get Gail Daughtry into the bed of Jon Hamm. It is one of the silliest premises you’ll see this summer, and it’s an absolute blast.
Someone I know saw this and said they didn’t like it. My initial reaction was, “I liked it. I thought it was scrappy.” And I think that’s the best definition for this film, because it feels like a movie fighting to be seen and heard in a summer full of blockbusters and sequels. Coming out right before Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, simply being aware that this film is alive seems like a struggle in and of itself. Sony Pictures Classics seems to be doing what it can to make sure the visibility is there, but this is still a tiny, weird comedy being dropped into a summer marketplace dominated by much larger creatures.
Zoey Deutch is having a really lovely year, as she was also quite excellent in Voicemails for Isabelle. Even Jon Hamm, who does actually appear in this movie and is not merely treated as some unseen object at the end of the rainbow, is having a great year. His Your Friends & Neighbors got significantly better in its second season, and here he’s game for the kind of ridiculousness the premise demands.
I wouldn’t say this is a perfect film, but it did make me laugh at least a few times, and that’s worth something these days. So many comedies are sent straight to streaming that part of me wants to give this a thumbs up just for the audacity of sending it into theaters. I keep watching things on Netflix that are supposedly these big comedies, and they just don’t work for me. Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass never pretends it’s anything more than it is. It’s a dream based on a wish, hoping that this completely ridiculous concept might somehow come true. It’s silly, it’s scrappy, and sometimes that’s enough.
Other than Wet Hot American Summer, which I thought of because of the style of humor, I was reminded of all the quest type films, like Dude Where’s My Car, Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, and the more recent One Of Them Days, which have a silly journey for an unlikely reward. In those three films,each one had something taken and they are trying to get it back. Here, what Gale lost is a little less physically tangible, but what she gains by the end is a new sense of self.
If you want to see comedies in theaters and not relegated to streaming services, you need to actually see them in theaters.
Fresh: 7.7/10
