Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass
When a different Gail (Zoey Deutch, "Zombieland: Double Tap," "Nouvelle Vague") from Kansas, a hairstylist engaged to be married in two weeks, finds her fiancé Tom (Michael Cassidy, "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice") making good on an imagined pass to have sex with Jennifer Aniston in the back room of a bookstore, she leaves for L.A. with her bestie Otto (Miles Gutierrez-Riley, "Smile 2") where a fortune teller advises her to set things right by cashing in her own. And so Gail sets off to find Jon Hamm, picking up three companions along her own yellow brick road in "Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass."
Laura's Review: C-
Cowriter (with Ken Marino)/director David Wain ("Wet Hot American Summer," "Role Models") twists "The Wizard of Oz" into a crass and stupidly unfunny journey across L.A. where apparently a stranger from Kansas plotting to have sex with Jon Hamm is considered perfectly normal. This is the kind of movie that adds 'intrigue' with a lame swapped bag device, one which sets mob boss Ludovica's (Sabrina Impacciatore, 'The White Lotus' season 2) goons Marco (Matthew Jayson Cwern) and Sergio ('Brooklyn Nine-Nine's' Joe Lo Truglio) on Gail's trail. When they fail to get the bag back on their first attempt, Ludovica stabs Marco in the throat, traumatizing Sergio.
After that very specific fortune teller sets their agenda (the two are ostensibly in L.A. for a seminar with celebrity hairstylist Remy Fontaine (Thomas Lennon, TV's 'Reno 911!')), Gail and Otto (just reverse the first two letters of his name) head to CAA and ask receptionist Caleb (Ben Wang, "Karate Kid: Legends," "The Long Walk") where they can find Jon Hamm. Looking for the career boost that might ensue if he actually meets the man, Caleb decides to help them with his 'connections' and smarts (here's our Scarecrow!), but out on the street, the best they can do is a Star Maps Salesman ("Wet Hot American Summer's" Michael Ian Black). That leads them to a prior residence of Hamm's where a pissed off 'Weird Al' Yankovic chases them away with an automatic rifle, right into the blind of papparazzi Vincent (Ken Marino, "Role Models"), who is, at first, annoyed, before he realizes they are looking for his 'white whale.' Here is our Tin Man whose actual connections lead them to a dicey part of town where they will find John Slattery working out with a boxing bag, but whimpering when challenged. This Cowardly Lion, who in this iteration of L.A. hasn't worked since 'Mad Men' ended,' pulls up six month old texts where it is evident his old friend is trying to blow him off but which suggests he may be staying at the Chateau Marmont.
While they figure out that Hamm is indeed there and which room he's staying in, his assistant, Terrence (Tobie Windham), initially happy to see Slattery, spends about three full minutes slamming the hotel room door on his foot, a painfully unfunny sequence that goes on far too long and makes little sense. Then Terrance offers them a deal - find his boss a movie script he likes and they can meet with him. Ignoring the obvious in their own true life story, they'll find inspiration in Ludovica's suitcase, which Gail finally has need to open.
One can see what Wain was going for here, an irreverently off kilter comedy, but he never gets the tone right. Everything is so nonsensical, jokes just fall flat. One scene has our heroine beating someone (this film's Wicked Witch character) so badly with her fists, she ends up as bloody as a participant in an "Evil Dead" movie, a truly off putting gag. There is also the inexplicable decision for Gail, Otto and Caleb to take off their pants and throw them at Weird Al to protect themselves. The film does have a few nice touches, like its narrator, Frank the Mailman (Fred Melamed, "A Serious Man"), who appears like some weird kind of Guardian Angel. There are also a ton of cameos, like Elizabeth Perkins and Melamed's "Serious Man" costar Richard Kind as L.A. cabbies and Paul Rudd in a non-speaking role as a wedding guest. The film's sweetly oddball finale confirms Hamm's role as the Wizard, everyone receiving what they'd set out for.
"Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass" may work for some, comedy being very subjective, but it didn't for me. If L.A. is supposed to be Oz, it's depicted as a sun-baked expanse I wouldn't want to visit.
Sony Pictures Classics releases "Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass" in theaters on 7/10/26.
