Much like the Mayan Calendar Ending, Y2K was a phenomenon that wasn’t, though we definitely turned our computers off that night. I will admit, I was waiting for someone other than the Simpsons to try something with the alternate reality of events, where Y2K basically takes down the global order. With an assist from the This Is The End boys, director Kyle Mooney has a fun time taking a shot at the premise, with a little bit of period piecing along the way.
After some AIM chatting with his crush Laura (Rachel Zegler), Eli (Jaeden Martell) goes about his New Years Eve with his buddy Danny (Julian Dennison), just one of those days for Eli. But Danny’s eyes are bigger: he’s ready to go to the big party that night. Eli relents, because Rachel will be there, recently single and maybe available for a midnight kiss. As we hit midnight, Eli, Danny, and Rachel’s teen problems take a 180, as the microwave, Game Boys, and perhaps a Tamagotchi or 2 start rollin in, as Ahnold says in the Terminator films, becoming “self aware.”
Based on that description, director Mooney is trying to tie together a 90s teen romcom with a B movie horror film. The fit isn’t perfect, but works more than it doesn’t. The teen comedy probably works best, because of the stellar cast Mooney has put together. It helps that I WAS my generation’s Eli and I remember those parties, clothes, and the music of the time. Music in particular is insistent at the beginning, but it’s necessary to quickly formulate the base of the characters we’ll be hanging out with. There’s Ash (Lachlan Watson) and the alt rock clan, adorning black with piercings and ripped clothing, leading to an abrasive but sneakily self-inflicting personality. Or the faux erudite CJ (Daniel Zolghadri), wearing condescending hipster glasses, a beanie, and a holier than though disposition hiding his fear of being a sellout/fraud. I was somewhere between the two of them: a bit of Eminem, another bit of alt rock, though not quite a hardcore acolyte. The Horror stuff is mostly pratical, and the computer effects are that cheesy quasi futuristic 1999 version of what the Internet and computing might look like. Weta Studios nailed the practical designs especially, making the perfect “enemy” for the jist of what Y2K was going for.
As for the story, Mooney elects to tie 3 mini films together. Each transition is built around a character death, usually the one that would become annoying as hell in a 90 minute film. So we essentially get 30 minutes each of one of those for each sequence. The movie’s first big character death shocks but was a mistake, since they were the best character in the movie at that point. So the counterfeit middle section really drags as Mooney tries to rebaseline around a bunch of other people we don’t quite know or like as much yet. Y2K was probably going to be a giant let down if it didn’t do something amazing with it’s third act. Thankfully, the cameo of the year was that amazing thing. I maybe dreamed it would happen based on what music was used, but the second the person starts talking, I became giddy. Mooney thankfully mines everything we want out of the person, who’s game to have fun with who they are and still be them at the same time.
Y2K is likely destined for midnight madnesses across the US. It never quite fully lives up to its potential, I guess in a weird way paralleling the terrifying non event it was portraying. Just like I was sneakily giving away who the cameo probably is. Read carefully, and you might figure it out. Away message up, going offline now.