Movie Review: An Absurd Trip to Hollywood in 'Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass' A little more than halfway through the extremely silly Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass, the main character questions the very idea behind her journey, and by extension, the movie itself. Zoey Deutch’s character, Gail, embarks on a “Wizard of Oz”-like journey from Kansas to Hollywood to even the score with her fiancé and have sex with her celebrity free-pass: Jon Hamm. Midway through the film, Gail expresses frustration, calling the premise “ridiculous,” “stupid,” and “utterly pointless,” asking, “Why?” Her exasperation reflects the film’s own self-aware absurdity, which director David Wain and co-writer Ken Marino embraced as a deliberate choice. They admitted early on that the concept was inherently stupid, nonsensical, and destined to go nowhere, yet they insisted it was worth making. The film follows Gail, a wide-eyed, never-left-Kansas woman who hasn’t even heard of the term “celebrity free-pass” at the start of the movie. Her daffy high school sweetheart, played by John Slattery, has already used his pass, and Gail’s quest to find and seduce the man who played Don Draper—Jon Hamm—becomes her mission. Slattery’s character, a sadder and more comedic version of himself, serves as Gail’s reluctant guide. His portrayal of a man who hasn’t worked in a decade, taken up self-defense as a hobby, and whose text messages to his former Mad Men co-star go unanswered adds layers of humor to the already chaotic narrative. Wain’s film is a love letter to and send-up of Hollywood’s absurdity, much like his earlier work Wet Hot American Summer, which similarly blended nostalgia and satire. Gail Daughtry takes this approach further, exaggerating the surrealism of the entertainment industry.#john_slattery #zoey_deutch #david_wain #jon_hamm #gail_daughtry
‘Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass’ Review: Hamming It Up A small-town naïf heads to Los Angeles to bed her celebrity crush (Jon Hamm) in this bonkers sex comedy. By Jeannette Catsoulis. When you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission. An unswervingly dumb picture sprouting from a single daffy idea, “Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass” might be an even loonier package than the moviemaking accomplices David Wain and Ken Marino assembled almost 20 years ago with “The Ten” (2007). This is excellent news for fans of Wain’s world in general (he’s probably best known for his 2001 sex comedy, “Wet Hot American Summer”), as he and his collaborators are never entirely without comedy chops. What they too often lack, though, is the crucial ability to distinguish silly from stupid. A few pointers from Mel Brooks or the surviving Pythons would not have gone amiss. Instead, we have “Gail Daughtry,” a puerile blend of middle-school vulgarity, cartoon violence and narrative derangement. Its wide-eyed, wholesome center is Gail (Zoey Deutch), a small-town Kansas hairdresser and bride-to-be who catches her fiancé, Tom (Michael Cassidy), taking advantage of his celebrity sex pass by bonking a comically contrite Jennifer Aniston. (Given Gail’s near-pathological perkiness, my sympathies were firmly with Tom.) Distraught, Gail agrees to accompany her best friend and curl connoisseur, Otto (Miles Gutierrez-Riley), to a hairstyling convention in Los Angeles where, she hopes, she can enjoy a revenge coupling with her own celebrity pass: Jon Hamm.#jennifer_aniston #zoey_deutch #jon_hamm #david_wain #ken_marino
