Kyle Mooney is the one person that I feel could invoke nostalgia for the turn of the millennium and the 90’s. He has this weird outlook that blends perfectly the bright and exciting 90’s with the much darker adult side. Were those colors and commercialism a trademark of America or were they just for kids? Mooney minimally ever goes down that rabbit hole, and I guess he doesn’t need to. With his most recent work, “Y2K”, which so happens to be his most mainstream approach, merge together perfect irony and the attempt to appeal to the masses. From Tamagotchis, to Billy Blanks and not to forget those fabled catchy AIM away messages, they all find their home in a commercialized package.
Beginning as an overused take on ”Superbad”, Eli and Danny set the scene for Y2K by mischievously trying to crash a popular new year’s eve party for highschool kids. The duo had very simple yet attainable goals in mind for the party as they were somewhat social outcasts of the school where Eli was a bit shy while Danny was the more outgoing one. Eli was infatuated by a girl named Laura (played by Rachel Zegler). Mooney and his co writer Evan Winter portray an amusing yet generic R Rated teen comedy. I personally found the characters and story quite boring yet the the onscreen charm brought in by Dennison was on a whole new level which was effective in itself.
And then a catastrophe unfolds. The lights go out and everything goes out while the hype of paranoid people about the Y2K scare is real. All communication systems fail, planes drop out of the sky, and and this is the worst of all consumer electronics turn on, blend together like a virus and start killing every innocent being around them with a spinning blender or computer cables. All this, along with the initial insanity of the film, easily remains the most entertaining part. So, Eli and Laura along with a group of lost teens will have to go into the wilderness and find a way in the town to survive after all.
The goal for “Y2K” was to focus primarily on the disarray that followed the dawn of the new millennium, and when viewed in light of all the tech predictions, it indeed is quite entertaining. There is a certain thrill to the head-turn that has been added to the typical comedy for teenagers, as if “Dazed and Confused” was thrown off track and Ben Affleck stepped in as the Terminator. However, because of the enormous rug being pulled out of the perfectly crafted narrative, the film tends to fall apart far too early. Mooney finds himself seeking to subvert the films that he’s drawing From The Terminator and The Goonies and along with attempting to parody those films, he always manages to cut himself off at the knees quite frequently. This sort of, teasing narrative in and of itself is both terrible and an interesting concept to utilize. This tug and pull of genres also leads the plot and its elements to get somewhat lost, which only worsens the experience. During the forth half of the movie, the remaining heroes get stuck in the forest with each other, and what ensues is nothing short of a comedy.
A couple of welcome detours take place, revolving around Mooney as a gungy stoner obsessed with devil sticks as much as the apocalypse; This is the kind of bumbling character that he always plays in snooze fest of a show, “SNL” he doesn’t use the character too much as to not become annoying.
When the Mooney and Winter reach to the end of the house-party massacre, too many ideas are seemingly exhausted and the film enters into the final hour aimlessly adding elements to the plot. The characters that we are now interested in are not at all interesting, and the aimless nostalgia for the weird ’90s trivialities further serves little purpose, and the editing sports chaotic timing. This is before the highlight spoiling cameo, which is unfathomably bad tho is positioned to be part of the plot: Fred Durst, who wraps up with the kids as they fight for the desperate cause.
In “I Saw the TV Glow”, Durst, who appears to enjoy re-exploring the decade that made him a television star, can be rather exasperating. But yes, it is refreshing to put on his trademark red hat. Nevertheless, one cannot help but think that the “Harold & Kumar” series did this better with NPH owing to the underlying confluence of testosterone and cynicism.
To put it simply, I would say that “Y2K” is the most trashy effort from Mooney. In his previous post “SNL’ projects, he seemed to have an inexplicable fascination with the 90s showing deep affection for the era. His projects were an commentary upon what having grown up in that era felt like for everyone, a profound experience considering how many of us were parentless children. “Brigsby Bear” was able to bring cheeky sentiment with regards to the entertainment meant for kids, some of which was harmful as well, which us gave us and get us addicted to (and as us kids wanted helps socialize).
From micromachines to mess mouth the Netflix hit “Saturday Morning All-Star” performed better than “Quiet on Set” in relation to the Nickelodeon entertainment complex’s pranking itself with the kid’s cartoon blocks. “Y2K,” on the other hand, is completely different. The film’s goal is simply to get viewers enthusiastic whenever a turn-dial or low rode jeans scenes are on a screen. It does contain some artistry, for people have always fantasized technology will consume them, this is the 21st century after all, but going back to what the human race starting it it’s been summed up in. When this is put in the midst of a mindless twenty-something party, the architecture also loses its distinction. It is not Y2K – It is not a foolish movie. I want it removed off the trash and feel alright with children crying, of trying to destroy everything physically. Now that is just a bit boring.
Watch free movies on Fmovies.
