Movie Review: Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass

As comedy has become such a low priority in Hollywood over the past 7-8 years, David Wain's output has slowed down considerably. Since his last film A Futile and Stupid Gesture released on Netflix in January 2018, the 56-year-old that's best known for being one of the leaders of the sketch comedy troupe The State and helping birth Wet Hot American Summer with his State cohort Michael Showwalter has only worked as a hired gun director on a couple of television series (Mr. Throwback, Miracle Workers). Wain's return to making his own stuff is a fitting one as he teamed up with another old friend of his from The State in Ken Marino to write an indie comedy entitled Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass that harkened back to their absurdist roots. Returning to the lane that put him on the map pays dividends for Wain as Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass is the best thing he's done in nearly 20 years. 

To add a few additional details to the title that nicely defines the plot, Gail Daughry (Zoey Deutch) is a hairdresser in Kansas whose upcoming nuptials to her high school sweetheart (Michael Cassidy) suddenly get complicated when he unexpectedly uses his "celebrity free pass". To try to even the score before the wedding, Gail joins her co-worker/best friend Otto (Miles Gutierrez-Riley) on a trip to a hairdressing convention in Los Angeles with the intention of having sex with her celebrity pass Jon Hamm during her few days in the City of Angels. What ensues is a pretty warped, Wizard of Oz-esque adventure where Daughtry crosses paths with an aspiring talent agent (Ben Wang), former paparazzo (Marino) whose career was derailed by his inability to get a photo of Hamm, Hamm's Mad Men co-star John Slattey and a vicious crime boss (Sabrina Impacciatore) whose briefcase full of important contraband inadvertently ends up in Daughtry's possession after her goons (Joe Lo Trugilo, Mather Zickel) set it down in the waiting area of LAX to take a photo with Henry Winkler. 

Having Daughtry and her (mostly) new pals run around Los Angeles looking for Hamm and dodging criminals that are trying to kill them is a great recipe for Wain to do near non-stop bits. While the hit rate is nowhere near as high as Wet Hot American Summer (to be fair, not many comedies are operating on that level), it's considerably higher than his last absurdist comedy They Came Together and the best bits-which most notably include an over-the-top fight scene on an abandoned western movie set, a lengthy interaction with Hamm's bodyguard (Tobie Windham, who gives the funniest performance in the movie despite only being on screen for 10-12 minutes) outside of his hotel room at the Chateau Marmont and a cameo from Richard Kind as a cab driver who gives Gail unsolicited advice about pursuing acting-are jam-packed with idiotic comedy excellence. Wain is one of the best around at delivering deadpan, joyfully dumb comedy and it was cool to see him get so much out of an ensemble cast that largely didn't have prior experience with this type of humor. His fastball might not be what it was 25 years ago, but there's still a place for Wain's comedic sensibilities today and hopefully, it won't be another 8 years before we see his next project.

Grade: B