GENRE | Kyle Mooney Relives the Year 2000 – 'Y2K' Glitches Out

"Someone's on the net!"

A24 / VVS Films

What if the year 2000 computer glitch actually happened? That's the premise of former Saturday Night Live cast member Kyle Mooney's directorial debut. His turn-of-the-millennium disaster slasher comedy, appropriately titled Y2K, strikes a strong late-'90s nostalgic chord for middle-aged millennials who grew up with desktop computers, dial-up internet, burned CDs, and the popularity of nu-metal rap rock music.

Starring Jaeden Martell, Julian Dennison, and Rachel Zegler as high school New Year's Eve partygoers caught in a computer virus-incited sentient robot uprising, there's a mishmash of film genres and competing tones from the start due to Mooney's scattershot interests. It very much feels like an extended sketch idea where the beginning, middle, and of of the story all feel completely incongruous from each other.

Written by Mooney and Evan Winter, what derails the fun times are the inconsistent detours and overstuffing of dated references culminating in a strange extended third act cameo by Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst, playing a reluctantly heroic version of himself supposedly twenty-five years younger.

Y2K never really decides what it wants to be, from its silly coming-of-age hangout comedy to a sweet teen romance set at a house party and then a violent post-apocalyptic horror flick about saving the world. There are too many random elements and leaps of narrative directions that just do not fit together despite some amusing sequences and likeable lead performances.


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