Cast: Rachel Zegler, Jaeden Martell, Julian Dennison, Alicia Silverstone
Genre: Teen Horror, Comedy, Sci-Fi
Director: Kyle Mooney
In Irish Cinemas: Now
Kyle Mooney, best known for his tenure on Saturday Night Live, makes his directorial debut with Y2K. This film attempts to blend romantic comedy with tech-driven horror but ultimately struggles to find a cohesive identity. Set against the backdrop of the turn of the millennium, the movie leans heavily into nostalgia, prioritising references to late-’90s pop culture and consumer products over meaningful character development. As a result, the characters often feel like placeholders rather than fully realised individuals, making their reactions to the film’s chaotic events—especially the emergence of monstrous, Frankenstein-like technological threats—feel inconsistent or underdeveloped.
The film’s tonal inconsistency further complicates its effectiveness. It swings erratically between broad comedy and heightened melodrama, but neither element has enough room to resonate truly. The humour lacks the punch to land memorably, while the emotional beats fail to carry the necessary weight. This leaves the ensemble cast struggling to navigate a script that never quite decides what kind of story it wants to tell, resulting in a film that feels as scattered as the Y2K paranoia it attempts to satirise.
The film’s narrative struggles with flimsy setups that fail to build toward satisfying resolutions, often delivering payoffs that feel entirely unearned. A prime example comes in the third act, which hinges on a surprise cameo that could have been a significant highlight—had the script subtly laid the groundwork for it. Instead, Y2K jumps haphazardly from one scenario to the next, as if its post-apocalyptic chaos were being improvised on the spot. This erratic storytelling only exacerbates the film’s jarring tonal shifts.
While there are flashes of creativity in its violent set pieces, the film struggles to establish a clear emotional framework for them. Some moments are exaggerated for comedic effect, while others aim for stark, dramatic intensity—yet there’s little distinction between the two, making it difficult to grasp how the audience is meant to respond. As a result, what should be thrilling or darkly humorous instead feels muddled, preventing Y2K from landing on a cohesive identity.
Jaeden Martell, Julian Dennison, and Rachel Zegler each deliver strong performances within the confines of their assigned archetypes—Martell as the socially awkward geek, Dennison as the overconfident class clown, and Zegler as the misunderstood yet effortlessly cool popular girl. However, the script offers them little opportunity to transcend these familiar ’90s high school stereotypes. Their characters remain neatly boxed into these roles, seldom challenging or subverting expectations and rarely stepping beyond the narrow boundaries set for them.
The film also features many vibrant supporting characters, such as Lachlan Watson’s brooding emo rocker, Ash, and Daniel Zolghadri’s aspiring rapper, CJ. Yet, rather than serving as meaningful reflections of the leading trio or the decade’s cultural landscape, they mainly exist as background flavour—interesting in theory but underutilised in practice. Despite their presence, the film struggles to give even its central characters a sense of depth, leaving them feeling more like decorative elements than fully realised individuals.
That said, one aspect the film does get right is its aesthetic: the period-appropriate hairstyles and costumes at least ensure that the ’90s setting looks the part, even if the story itself never fully breathes life into it.
Overall: 5/10
Movie Reviewer
