Did these guys do it all for the Nookie? (CREDIT: Nicole Rivelli/A24)

Starring: Jaeden Martell, Rachel Zegler, Julian Dennison, Daniel Zolghadri, Lachlan Watson, Eduardo Franco, Fred Durst, Kyle Mooney, Mason Gooding, The Kid Laroi, Miles Robbins, Tim Heidecker, Alicia Silverstone, Lauren Balone, Kevin Mangold

Director: Kyle Mooney

Running Time: 93 Minutes

Rating: R for Stabby Electronics, Potty Humor, and Teenage Party Antics

Release Date: December 6, 2024 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: It’s December 31, 1999, and all Eli (Jaeden Martell) wants to do is finally hook up with his crush Laura (Rachel Zegler). His good buddy Danny (Julian Dennison) has his back, but pretty much everyone else in their high school relentlessly mocks them. But soon enough, that’ll be the least of their worries, because of this little thing called the Y2K virus. The start of the year 2000 was supposed to cause mass confusion among the world’s electronics as they mistakenly interpreted those last two digits as 1900. But in the real world, the new year rolled in with merely a blip. But what if instead the Y2K bug was a signal for all the computers to unite into a singularity and conquer humanity, and what if it all went down in Eli and Danny’s hometown?

What Made an Impression?: Apocalyptic Nostalgia: Y2K was directed and co-written by Kyle Mooney, who was 15 in December 1999. His fondness for the era is abundantly clear, and you get the sense that he was kind of disappointed that the world didn’t explode on January 1. I’m sure he didn’t actually want things to turn quite as violent as his movie does, but this nevertheless feels like a dream come true in a way. Basically, Y2K is what happens if you go, “What if the 1998 teen comedy Can’t Hardly Wait had been about the end of the world?” And that promise certainly sounds invigorating.
The Mooney House Style: In his years as a YouTube creator and Saturday Night Live cast member, Mooney perfected his own unique version of what is often termed “awkward” or “cringe” comedy. And while those descriptors are certainly accurate, they don’t fully capture his arsenal, as his videos also often manage to be quite sweet and weirdly exhilarating. Which is one way of saying, it’s really hard to do what Kyle Mooney does if you’re not Kyle Mooney or one of his longtime collaborators. Martell, Zegler, Dennison and the rest of the young cast all do their best to play believable, well-rounded teenagers. But in attempting to bring Mooney and Evan Winter’s script to life, it’s like they’re speaking in a language they’re not quite fluent in. Mooney himself naturally proves to be much more readily capable as a video store employee, as does fellow iconic weirdo Tim Heidecker as Eli’s dad. Perhaps the now-40-year-old Mooney could’ve pulled a PEN15 and played the lead character himself?
My Bizkit Hasn’t Been This Limp in Years: Finally, we as a moviegoing society in 2024 have to talk about something very important, as this is the second movie this year trading on our collective familiarity with a certain iconic/infamous rock star. Yes indeed, after Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst was unrecognizable in I Saw the TV Glow, he shows up in Y2K as himself to save the world with the power of nu metal. Like a lot of teens and preteens in 1999, I was more or less obsessed with Limp Bizkit, but I thought I had grown out of that as I put childish things away. But now we find ourselves at this cultural reckoning where we must ask ourselves: is the bard behind “Nookie” and “Break Stuff” a national treasure? If my limited understanding of a certain famous psychologist and theorist is correct, then there’s something Jungian about how Durst keeps popping up. Mooney certainly has a knack for tapping into the collective unconscious, and Y2K is at its strongest when you can feel him utilizing that skill.

Y2K is Recommended If You Like: Dial-up modems, Cheesy outdated computer graphics, Getting lost among the cliques

Grade: 3 out of 5 Viruses