From Jeremy Kibler

Dial-up, AIM, KaZaA, Limp Bizkit, Tae Bo with Billy Blanks, Tamagotchis — every pop cultural trend and way of life right before the second millennium is on display in Y2K, SNL alumnus Kyle Mooney’s directorial debut. This is a ‘90s kid’s dream movie that takes advantage of its wild what-if premise well enough, although one would’ve liked to see the very game cast working with a slightly sharper script, co-written by Mooney and Evan Winter. 

Part raucous teen comedy, part apocalyptic horror romp, and part nostalgic Easter Egg hunt, Y2K imagines January 1, 2000 if Can’t Hardly Wait or Superbad morphed into Maximum Overdrive and Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The seemingly can’t-miss results are scattershot if fun. 

Done with 1999, adorably awkward outsider Eli (Jaeden Martell) and sociable best friend Danny (Julian Dennison) are ready to ring in 2000 with a bang. Eli may have a better connection with his popular computer-whiz crush Laura (Rachel Zegler) over AIM, but with Danny’s wing-man confidence, they crash the New Year’s Eve house party where Laura, as well as the entire high school student body, will be. But when the clock strikes midnight, everything goes to hell and every machine, from electronic devices to appliances, takes over. 

Y2K doesn’t really capture the anxiety of the Year 2000 problem that never happened or make the stakes feel as high as they should be. What Mooney’s film does have, though, is an irresistible amount of nostalgia and a lack of fear in casually killing off any character to splatsticky effect, including the most grating, most charismatic, or least defined of the bunch. Of the cast, Martell and Dennison do sell their bromance and fill out their character types likably, while Zegler (who still finds the chance to sing) has an appealing presence but doesn’t always convince as a popular girl who also happens to be a hacker. Lachlan Watson and Daniel Zolghadri lend interesting vulnerability and have a few surprisingly touching moments together as the survivors of their rap skater group. 

Mooney also drops in to play a burnout video-store clerk who wears dreads and likes getting stoned in the champagne room; he’s endearing enough in the supporting part. Lastly, ‘90s “It Girl” Alicia Silverstone has a few scenes, alongside Tim Heidecker, as Eli’s affectionate parents, and Fred Durst gets an amusing extended cameo for the last half.

Crammed with so many period-specific details, the film almost verges on becoming a game of “remember that?” The costume design and earworm-heavy soundtrack, though, are always on point, from the likes of Chumbawamba, Fatboy Slim, Sneaker Pimps, Mandy Moore, and Semisonic. Once the appliances build upon each other to make killing machines, some of the action is jarringly edited, and a few leaps must be taken when we’re supposed to mourn over certain character deaths. Even if it doesn’t really earn the earnest emotion it strives for, Y2K boasts a great premise with fun characters and gags. The uneven execution of a decades-too-late scenario is still a pretty good time. 

Rating: 3/5

Y2K is currently in theaters.

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