Sean Parker
Walking into a classroom at MIT to attend a screening of Kyle Mooney’s Y2K is about as meta as it gets. As a huge fan of those old William Castle gimmicks, the simple idea of seeing a film about the AI apocalypse on New Year’s Eve in 1999 in a place synonymous with building AI-driven robotics was, by itself, a treat. I have to assume it’s a similar elation seeing Friday the 13th at Camp Crystal Lake or Jaws while floating in a pool. Director-co-writer Kyle Mooney and co-writer-producer Evan Winter were in attendance to introduce the film and crown a winner of a “Dress Like it’s 1999” costume contest. While it was the perfect screening room for Y2K, the energy in the room felt way more like the opening of Scream 2, with A24 graciously providing pizza and T-shirts to all in attendance. The surrealness would have become ominous if some Nick Cave started playing.
I believe the atmosphere of the room only helped the film. The audience was in a fantastic mood to watch this profound take on ’90s science-fiction cinema, specifically while being twenty-five years removed from many of its references. Especially considering the majority of attendees weren’t likely born at the time. Still, these future software and automation engineers of the world were getting a real kick out of the film’s simplistic Hollywood explanations of the complicated internal workings of the machines they piece together and pull apart daily. The musing satire of Mooney’s take on these misinterpretations of what projected internet fears onto many parents throughout the late nineties addresses some of the more precedent fears current generations have about AI in 2024.
Somewhere within Y2K’s high-tech gadgetry and amazingly well-crafted practical effects is a story about two best friends. Eli (IT’s Jaeden Martell) and Danny (Deadpool 2’s Julian Dennison) prepare to party like it’s 1999. They burn mix CDs, visit their local hangouts, and run into Eli’s crush, Laura (West Side Story’s Rachel Zegler), who details her recent breakup while shoplifting beer from the convenience store. All of this to psych themselves up for new experiences that will transform them in the next millennium. If this all seems a little Superbad, it’s probably because the beginning of Y2K kind of is.
Y2K plays like a love letter to the ’90s but plays even more like a thank you to video stores. A lot of the effects-driven work by Wētā Workshop (Lord of the Rings) in Y2K almost feels transformative of the creativity found in low-budget direct-to-VHS rentals, even though there are still plenty of mainstream references. The start of the film has more than a bit of influence from Kevin Smith, with Eli and Danny entering a video store, similar to Randall’s from Clerks. Then, before we know it, a conversation about the “flying car,” identical to the short Smith made with the Clerks characters in 2002, takes place.
As the teenagers meander, there are a host of more prevalent, subtextual John Hughes style musings. The Sixteen Candles commitment to a party that will change everything. The Pretty in Pink dependencies of friends in social systems. The archetypal groups that exist but never attempt to befriend each other in The Breakfast Club. And a smidge of the horniness and all-around genre shift of Weird Science.
When midnight rolls around, the fun really starts turning the film into something like This is the End meets Puppet Master. Imagine every early internet science fiction movie that put the fear of technology into you or your parents. Films like The Terminator, Robocop, The Net, The Matrix, Hackers, Hardware, Johnny Mnemonic, and The Lawnmower Man. A lot of these and more come bursting forth as these characters are forced to band together with their classmates from other cliques or face a very oppressive future at the hands of their robot overlords, who’ve hatched a very Matrix-adjacent plan to pacify society while turning people into walking zombie-batteries (zombatteries?).
The cast is stacked with names and faces you’ve seen before. Beyond the trio of Martell, Dennison, and Zegler are ’90s idol Alicia Silverstone (Clueless), comedian Tim Heidecker (Us), Stranger Things’ Eduardo Franco, The Unheard’s Lachlan Watson, Eighth Grade’s Daniel Zolghadri, musician The Kid Laroi, Scream’s Mason Gooding, Halloween’s (2018) Miles Robbins, and Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst playing a hyped-up version of himself.
Many themes come pushing through by the end of the film. Some advocate the warnings of AI, but under the guise of that same ’90s paranoia that suggests we shouldn’t believe the hype. Is the worst thing we got from birthing the internet the vitriol of others’ opinions on social media, or has that open aggression just moved into a faceless space? The film muses on questions like these as characters struggle to find individualism and propose that the spaces we’ve created online are not unlike the people we’re magnetized by in High School.
As for the machines’ sentient aggressions against humans in the film, conversations concerning the reaches of technology stir up debate within Y2K. These observations never really amount to much, but a question about input is proposed. In one scene, the characters argue the potential harm a camera can do if it winds up attached to the Ultron-esque single-minded network. In 2024, art and AI are at an impasse, but even in the broader sense of online content, there’s a constant burden to continue creating. That obligation to appease an algorithm is weighty and can drive people from the pure joy of it. When you consider the current conversations taking place about social media and mental health, it works as an intelligent comparison.
The film gets muddy in the idea that we should seek to connect with people by putting ourselves out there to create IRL opportunities, yet simultaneously argues that we shouldn’t be completely against technological advancements like our parents. While Y2K argues we should use our phones less and indulge in memorable activities in the company of friends and family before they’re suddenly gone, the film never comes off as preachy. It’s a very practical approach to the mounting handheld addiction we all suffer from contained in a colossally over-the-top situation that will pair well with fans of Edgar Wright’s At World’s End.
The way things shake out in Y2K is utterly ridiculous, resulting in side-splittingly hilarity. This really is a film with a smorgasbord of references for Gen Xers and the Elder Millenials, but younger audiences will have fun gawking at the Stone Age they think these generations grew up in. There are some very extreme kill scenes and surprises that are simply too good to miss. The film itself has plenty of glaring plot holes, just like many of those ’90s science fiction films, yet it is easily one of the funniest comedies of 2024. And I think we could all use a good collective laugh right now as the new year is a venture into new unknowns.
Y2K is in theaters everywhere on December 6.
Y2K | Official Trailer 2 HD | A24
SUBSCRIBE: http://bit.ly/A24subscribe From writer/director Kyle Mooney and starring Rachel Zegler, Jaeden Martell, Julian Dennison, and Alicia Silverstone. Y2K – In Theaters December 6. RELEASE DATE: December 6 DIRECTOR: Kyle Mooney CAST: Rachel Zegler, Jaeden Martell, Julian Dennison, Alicia Silverstone Follow Y2K on Instagram: https://bit.ly/Y2K_IG Follow Y2K on X: https://bit.ly/Y2K_X Like Y2K on Facebook: https://bit.ly/Y2K_FB —— ABOUT A24: The studio behind MOONLIGHT, LADY BIRD, EX MACHINA, THE WITCH, EIGHTH GRADE, HEREDITARY & more.
