‘Y2K’ Review: The Bug Bites in Kyle Mooney’s Directorial Debut | SXSW 2024

Funny how we haven’t really seen a live-action comedy taking on the Y2K phenomenon until now. The Y2K bug was a programming issue in the 90s where computers were unable to correctly address a year change in their code – 1999 was represented as “99” on most devices, but 2000 looking like “00”, could be misread as the year 1900. It’s literally a problem that one would experience… once a millennium. Naturally, pop culture morphed the event into the fear of a computer apocalypse. Well, just like how the Mayans were wrong about 2012, we were all severely underwhelmed on January 1st, 2000. Life just went on. This is the inspiration behind Kyle Mooney’s Y2K, a crazy alternative history take on what if the Y2K bug actually did happen and bring about a robot apocalypse. The result is a chaotic trip that can only be described as the deranged lovechild of South Park and This Is The End.

Our pair of bumbling idiots is Eli (Jaeden Martell, It) and Danny (Julian Dennison, Deadpool 2), two best friends who are outsiders in their high school, desperate to get a New Year’s kiss with a girl so they can finally be cool and respected. For Eli, that girl is Laura (Rachel Zegler), the homecoming queen with a knack for computer hacking. Basically, she’s out of his league, but that won’t stop him from trying. This leads to Eli and Danny attending the largest New Year’s Eve party in the neighborhood – it’s almost as if the whole high school is attending. After all, a lot of people think the world is ending because of the Y2K bug!

Certainly, it’s a neat and simple premise that needs little introduction, but writer/director Mooney and writer/producer Evan Winter noticeably take a while before we get to the party, and everything that happens prior is rough in tone, humor, and for a pair of filmmakers who love freestyling so much, flow. It’s easy to understand what kind of buddy chemistry Eli and Danny have with each other, but their motivations and insecurities are as surface-level as they can be. It’s like a road trip where you’re dying for them to get in the car and onto the road already, because that’s where the movie is!

Thankfully, Y2K picks up its energy immediately once we get to the party, the New Year’s countdown happens, and shit very quickly hits the fan. Computers, devices, and appliances all come together (literally) in a violent uprising against all humans. There’s nothing weirder and more entertaining than watching teenagers being randomly and violently killed off by garage-science-project-looking Decepticons, led by a virtual entity called the Singularity. Our small group of survivors escape and off they go, into the woods, through their town. Where they go and why is a bit up in the air, as the film occasionally loses steam, trying to find ways to pick it up again. While Seth Rogen and Jay Baruchel and company are bunkered up in James Franco’s house, which helps This Is The End focus on the tension in the group, our teenagers in Y2K roam around outside with little aim of what to do, at least until the third act.

Though the film certainly gets a lot of laughs out of its pop culture references, needle drops, and 90s memorabilia, the script is in a constant struggle to keep the audience engaged in terms of story. Much of the film’s energy is in a laid-back stoner vibe. As funny as they can be, they inevitably halt the story’s momentum, as if we’re pausing the plot just to have this bit. The most revealing example of this is, well, Mooney himself, as he plays a stoner who works at a video store. The film constantly pushes what little story and character potential it has to the wayside in order to make room for him as the comedy presence.

It’s a missed opportunity because Mooney’s funniest moments behind the camera come from his handling of tone. More than once, I laughed at how matter-of-fact the film can be. You expect something extremely dramatic or serious to happen but Mooney has the comedic instinct to just let it happen so suddenly and plainly. One comedic highlight is the voice of the Singularity, who speaks in such a blatantly rude manner that it made me nostalgic for the old YouTube classic “Fuck You Baltimore” video. Another gust-busting moment involves a certain character’s fate with rollerblades. With his SNL background, Mooney does offer some genuinely hilarious moments in Y2K that I will remember for the rest of the year.

Holding the movie together is a cast of talented actors who know how to make the most fun out of this bizarre and chaotic premise. Martell and Zegler manage to ground the film into some sort of reality, as they share good chemistry and work well together to overcome the robot apocalypse. In keeping with my South Park comparison, it is literally like watching Stan Marsh team up with Wendy Testaburger. Dennison is having the time of his life, operating on his own plane of existence, and I wish the film got to use more of him. There are also a couple of fun performances from Lachlan Watson and Daniel Zolghadri as two other survivors in the group, both having a liking for freestyling and rock music. And then there’s a killer cameo (that’s almost in danger of overstaying its welcome), where the laughs come from not just the cameo itself but the characters constantly referring to them by their real name.

Y2K can be unfocused and too disorganized for its own good sometimes, but as a time capsule of the real 90s phenomenon, it’s a crazy wild ride worth taking at least once. Featuring impressive animatronic and prop work, some gnarly kills, an overload of virtual 90s 3D graphics, and a constant high-level trashy energy, Y2K is destined to be a cult classic. That Mooney and friends managed to get this made and shown to the perfect audience – a SXSW crowd – is… kind of da bomb.

Grade: C+

This review is from the 2024 SXSW Film Festival. A24 will release Y2K theatrically.