The scariest aspect of the sci-fi-horror comedy Y2K, for me, is that it’s a period piece, set on the last day of 1999 and the first day of 2000. Almost twenty-five years ago. When I was 38. Nostalgia has moved into periods when I was already hitting middle age.
Directed by Saturday Night Live alumnus Kyle Mooney, from a script he wrote with Evan Winter, the film starts like a standard teen comedy. Nerdy Eli (Jaeden Martell) and his pal Danny (Julian Dennison) are planning to go to a party at which the girl (Rachel Zegler) of Eli’s dreams will be in attendance. But it’s also the eve of the ominous “Year 2000 Problem” – computer programs that didn’t account for the first two digits of the year, and the fear that this would lead to massive system dysfunction and failures.
In reality, you may recall, very few major problems occurred. In Mooney and Winter’s vision, however, the full apocalyptic disaster all comes true, at least in the town where our heroes live; there are blackouts, and airplanes fall from the sky. But it goes farther than that – household appliances, TVs, PCs, video games, electronic toys, etc., rise up in revolt against the human race, conglomerating themselves into makeshift killer robots. Gruesome, sometimes scatological mayhem ensues.
Almost needless to say, not everything in Y2K works. But it’s imaginative, and the actors are energetic; it’s not hard to picture this uneven film developing an affectionate cult.
Martell and Dennison generate a sweet, unforced rapport, and Zegler strikes the right balance of romantic intrigue and wary reserve. The capable cast includes Mooney himself as an ebullient stoner and Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit as himself, maintaining a stolid dignity even as the movie seems to mock him.
Alicia Silverstone also appears, briefly, as Eli’s mom. As if this movie didn’t make me feel old enough, Alicia Silverstone is now playing moms.
