After watching the box office flop, Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass, which grossed only $1.6M on a tiny $3.5M budget, I have to believe that part of its poor showing was the title which probably went on theater ticket boards as Gail Daughtry (which is like Michael Clayton or Jay Kelly) and not something snappy like Celebrity Sex Pass. It's too bad, because like Pizza Movie earlier this year, it's a bonkers, silly comedy treat.
Zoey Deutch stars as Gail Daughtry, a perky, chirpy hairdresser from Kansas who is engaged to her high school sweetheart, Tom (Michael Cassidy, The O.C.). They're due to be married in two weeks, but the long march down the aisle hits a snag when they go to a celebrity book reading - I'm not going to spoil who like the Plex blurb did and isn't in the trailer - and Tom decides to cash in his celebrity sex pass at that time, much to Gail's chagrin as she catches him in the act.
Upset, she agrees to tag along with her co-worker Otto (Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Smile 2) to LA where a hairstyling convention is going on. She also decides she will settle the score with Tom by finding and boinking her sex pass pick: Jon Hamm. In her quest she teams up with a wannabe talent agent, Caleb (Ben Wang, Karate Kid: Legends); a washed-up paparazzi whose "white whale" is Hamm, Vincent (Ken Marino, who also co-wrote the script); and John Slattery, Hamm's co-star from Mad Men, as they try to get to Hamm so Gail can ride that hog, so to speak.
Also complicating matters are a pair of thugs (Joe Lo Truglio & Mather Zickel) who mistakenly switched briefcases with Gail at the airport and whose boss, Ludovica (Sabrina Impacciatore, The White Lotus S2), really wants its contents back because she has big plans for them.
It's not too hard to pick up on the parallels with The Wizard of Oz - Gale was Dorothy's last name, Gail has sparkly red sneakers and is from Kansas, everyone she meets needs something to fill a hole in their lives and feel only Jon Hamm can provide them - but what elevates Celebrity Sex Pass (let's fix that title too late for them) is just the sheer goofy craziness and "Wait, who?" cameos which it's nice to see the trailer doesn't give away except for one.
Director/co-writer David Wain is probably best known for Wet Hot American Summer (which I really didn't care for) and its two Netflix sequel series and as a co-founder of The State (never watched it), so fans of his should be an automatic for this and those familiar with his previous casts will know why they show up here. (Seriously, do NOT read the cast list before watching!) I've only seen Role Models of his, but whatever else he's done is irrelevant because he kills it here.
Deutch can be annoying - the missus can't stand her - and the most memorable line in Zombieland: Double Tap is when Emma Stone ask whether they can drop Deutch off at a no-kill shelter, but here she's appropriately adorable and guileless. You want her to go full ham on Hamm. The rest of the cast is fun though the stuff with the goons drags a tad.
Comedies have often been to scared of the woke crybullies to be funny lately, but Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass is a refreshingly raunchy rebuke to the killjoys and delivers the laughs in spades for those who like when things get randomly wild and crazy.
Score: 8.5/10. Catch it on cable/streaming.
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