‘Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass’ Review – Top Form Cast Brings Infectious & Absurd Energy

If you’re a fan of Wet Hot American Summer, you’ll be happy to find out that director David Wain hasn’t lost his mojo with Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass, a new comedy he co-wrote with Ken Marino, who also serves as a member of the ensemble cast whose energy and sincerity elevate the material. As a comedy, as tends to be the case with this genre at times, the jokes fly fast and furious, with some landing while others come and go, but the ones that do connect will certainly leave you in stitches. Much of the film is completely absurd, but kudos to the cast for being more than willing to sell all of this because their commitment to the film is what makes a large portion of the movie work. In the end, Gail Daughtry begins with the DNA of a raunchy sex comedy but ultimately transitions into something else as Gail goes through a bit of self-discovery in sunny Los Angeles, California.

Gail (Zoey Deutch) is an unassuming hairdresser from the Midwest who might be a bit simple-minded, but her likability lies in her heart, which is as pure as the driven snow. She’s engaged to Tom (Michael Cassidy), her high school sweetheart, which is why her world is turned upside down when she discovers that he has slept with his celebrity sex pass after she brings him to a book signing for The Morning Show’s Jennifer Aniston(yep, she appears as herself in a fun cameo). As is the case when this happens, Gail wants to even the score by heading to Los Angeles so she can sleep with her celebrity sex pass: Mad Men’s Jon Hamm. However, a bag switch when they arrive in the City of Stars puts them smack dab in the middle of Italian assassins. As is the case when one arrives in Los Angeles.

It’s unclear if The Wizard of Oz was Wain and Marino’s inspiration for this Los Angeles excursion, but it certainly checks out. Gail is our Dorothy, skipping through the streets of Los Angeles with whimsy and awe, far from the land from which she came, while her friend Otto (Miles Gutierrez-Riley) is practically Toto in human form. Along the way, they collect their Cowardly Lion (John Slattery playing himself), a Tin Man in search of a heart (Ken Marino’s washed-up paparazzo Vincent), and a Scarecrow (Ben Wang’s Caleb), each on their own journey of self-discovery to feel like they belong and matter. Caleb might quite literally need a brain, and given Slattery’s Hamm connection through Mad Men, he’s hilariously searching for a shred of his dignity in his former co-star’s shadow. Some of the funnier bits involve Slattery, who isn’t afraid to poke fun at himself to an extreme, as a second-fiddle, washed-up actor whose career stalled after Mad Men ended. It’s a committed performance that shows he’s a good sport.

There is a manic energy to all of the comedy here. At just 93 minutes, the film moves at a brisk pace and doesn’t pause to breathe. This works in a sense because it keeps you involved in its momentum, but also allows the viewer to ignore jokes that don’t totally work because they move along quickly before you can analyze why the joke didn’t land. The first two acts consist of total absurdity that borders on surrealism as this Los Angeles farce feels like it’s operating in an alternative universe that still feels oddly familiar because the LA tropes that are being poked at, largely about celebrity and stereotypes about the lifestyle of the city, are grounded in reality.

The frenetic energy is mostly courtesy of the film’s supporting cast, most of them alumni of Wain’s time with the sketch comedy troupe, The State. Michael Ian Black, Kevin Allison and Kerri Kenny-Silver all appear here, while Joe Lo Truglio and Mathel Zickel get their fair share of laughs as two out of their depth assassins who are hunting down Gail due to the bag mishap while Thomas Lennon complete loses himself in the role of a celebrity hairstylist named Remy Fontaine, who makes you believe that he and only he can do the perfect slip curt. There are also fun celebrity cameos throughout, most notably Penn Jillette, playing it silent for the jokes because…well…usually he isn’t, the always reliable “Weird” Al Yankovic, this time brandishing a gun and attitude, and Paul Rudd, bringing his signature everyday charm.

What’s impressive is the elements that ground the rest of the movie, which feels more like a fever dream than reality. Deutch’s journey proves to be interesting because she plays the sincerity of it. Deutch is skilled with a sense of humor to boot, but she realizes that she’s the “straight” person here, and she has to play the honesty of what brought her to Los Angeles. She’s a viewer of the chaos around her, but she never loses her focus and remains adorably earnest throughout. The film takes a bit of a tonal shift during its third act that turns it into a film that has to take itself a little seriously (stressing a little here) because the stakes of the main plot have to be resolved. This is when the film finds its beating heart, and that’s due in large part to Deutch.

Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass is an absurdist journey and a live-action cartoon for much of its runtime, but there is an ownership in the writing and performances that makes the audience accept all of the buffoonery. By the end, I find myself smiling at all of the ridiculousness I had just endured, and during a time when we are in desperate need of some laughs, this is a film that provides them unapologetically.

Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass hit screens on July 10 courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.