‘Y2K’ review: A nostalgic and comedic look a 5 years ago…RIGHT?
4/5 VHS tapes
I do not like the idea of 1999 being a period piece and yet Kyle Mooney’s Y2K reminds you just how old we really are. Set on New Year’s Eve before the new millennia, Mooney and Evan Winter’s script begs one simple question: What if Y2K really happened?
Eli (Jaeden Martell) and his best friend Danny (Julian Dennison) are not the popular kids at school but they also don’t want to be stuck at home on New Year’s Eve. But Eli’s crush, Laura (Rachel Zegler), told them about a party and they decided to live in up for the holiday. That is until the robot uprising.
If you weren’t alive for Y2K, you probably don’t know the real fear we all had about technology. What Mooney and Winter did with Y2K was say “okay technology isn’t erased forever but instead, it is sentient and wants your blood and compliance.” Honestly? It rules.
Throughout the entire 91 minute runtime, I felt both old and nostalgic for a time that belonged to my older brother. This movie is set literally during his senior year and while I remember that New Year’s Eve, I was 8 years old. I wasn’t at a house party with my friends. I was with my mom and my dad watching the ball drop.
But through Mooney’s direction, the 90s are alive and well again (for as long as the robots allow it to be so). It is the kind of quirky comedy we used to watch back in the VHS days. Filled with weird little characters you want to learn more about and one liners you’ll repeat with your friends, Mooney and Winter really nailed the vibe of the time period while making a very special and unique kind of comedy.
The small town video store does hold all our answers
Aside from the glitz of a 90s butterfly clip, Y2K reminds us of those high school friendships that felt like life and death at the time. In this case, they are literally friendships that will either lead to you living or dying. But I do love that this movie is weird and out there while still remaining a buddy comedy at its heart.
Mooney’s style of comedy has always been a bit odd and it is why so many of us loved him on Saturday Night Live. What Mooney and Winter achieve with Y2K is a nearly perfect balance of nostalgia mixed with that bit of mockery of the 90s as they were. We really thought all of computers were going to just stop functioning at midnight. In what time zone?! No one clarified.
Disaster comedies used to be a dime a dozen but we’ve moved away from the genre in recent years. Creatives like Mooney and Winter can and should be bringing them back. There is so much to love about Y2K, even down to Eli and Danny making their own action figures for That 70s Show since…they didn’t exist.
So whether you remember where you were or are trying to understand the reality of Y2K panic, you will want to laugh along with Mooney and Winter’s film.
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