Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass Wastes Its Talented Cast
David Wain's celebrity-packed farce throws everything at the wall, but too few of its rapid-fire jokes stick.
Prolific comedy creator David Wain (Wet Hot American Summer) revs up the joke machine, and assembles a host of funny folks from his past casts for the horny, happy would-be romp Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass.
Firing off gags at a consistently rapid pace, the film, directed by Wain, who co-wrote with fellow comedian Ken Marino, doesn’t lack for good-humored, gonzo energy. What’s missing a lot of the time is the wit and finesse, a little space to allow jokes to sink in rather than hammering the audience over the head with every gag.
More than once, the movie makes a point of characters stopping to admire their own joke, which isn’t funny the first time. But the film never lets up trying exuberantly hard at being a zany caper — punching, pratfalling, or shock-swearing its way to a laugh.
The effort registers in Zoey Deutch’s lead turn as the titular small-town Kansan, Gail, engaged to her longtime sweetheart Tom (Michael Cassidy). Hopelessly in love, the couple still allows each other one proverbial free sex pass, should he or she, on the most off chance, happen to run into their respective celebrity crush.
It’s at first just a subject for lighthearted gossip at the salon where Gail works as a stylist alongside her sassy gay, Black buddy Otto (Miles Gutierrez-Riley, making the most of a thinly-written sidekick). But celebrity fantasy gets unexpectedly real when Tom meets and sleeps with his celebrity crush, Jennifer Aniston.
The fact that Aniston’s in Willowbrook, Kansas, to do a reading and signing for her latest book, Straightforward Suppers, in which she just describes dinners she’s had, is one of the movie’s sharper jokes. The subtle gags generally play better than the broad shots, while the celebrity cameos — and there are many — inject a few well-timed surprises, if not necessarily big laughs.
The star power suits the story, though, as Gail and Otto head to Hollywood for a hair show, and so she can seek out her celebrity crush, Jon Hamm. Encouraged by a $20 storefront psychic (Kerri Kinney) to save her relationship with Tom by evening the score, she’s determined to get her hands on Hamm’s ham.
The movie thus coalesces as a quest, with Gail and Otto enlisting new allies who join their journey along the way, including talent agency intern Caleb (Ben Wang) — who’s also not funny, but cute and spunky — and burnout paparazzo Vincent (Marino), who happens to have one elusive white whale he’s chased all over Hollywood but never photographed: Jon Hamm.
The ragtag band also adds Hamm’s erstwhile Mad Men co-star John Slattery, who gets to rip his tightly-wrapped image to shreds in the movie’s most go-for-broke performance. Slattery’s wild warrior completes the off-to-see-the-wizard vibes of Gail’s oddball outfit.
The Wicked Witch in this trip through Oz is Italian crime boss Ludovica (The White Lotus‘s Sabrina Impacciatore). Due to a pretty dumb briefcase switch-up, she has to send her goons, led by bumbling Sergio (Joe Lo Truglio), chasing after Gail and company to retrieve her missing items.
Our heroes’ run-ins with Ludovica and her mob frequently end in gunfire and violence, which pass for hijinks, though the action scenes aren’t staged with much impact. Wain reserves that enthusiasm for Jon Hamm dick jokes, and characters patting themselves on the back for purportedly doing something funny. The joke machine produces winners less than half of the time but it rarely slows down.
Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass (★★☆☆☆) is Rated R and is playing in theaters nationwide. Visit fandango.com.
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