In 2014, David Wain introduced a new cinematic technique that was arguably the biggest contribution to the art of moving images since the advent of Technicolor. With the release of his New York-set rom-com “They Came Together,” he proved that a city doesn’t just have to serve as a film’s setting — it can actually be a character in the movie. Breaking down such a layered metaphysical concept with the relatively few words left in this review would be a fool’s errand, but suffice it to say that all of the math miraculously checks out.
Wain has spent the subsequent decade coasting off the success of that breakthrough, but it’s hard to blame him — nobody can be expected to stumble upon that level of innovation twice in a lifetime. But his latest masterpiece, “Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass,” proves that his cinematic gambit applies to more than just the Big Apple. The conceptual genius has found a way to turn Los Angeles into a movie character too!
“Gail Daughtry” is a love letter to Los Angeles, just without any of the city’s good parts. It’s a tribute to chain restaurants and star maps and grifters who ply Old Hollywood jargon at the unsuspecting tourists who don’t realize they’re missing all the great culture that the city currently has to offer by pursuing what they erroneously believe it once had. It’s all shown through the eyes of Gail (Zoey Deutsch), a clueless midwesterner who shows up in the City of Angels for a hairstyling convention only to find herself questioning everything she once took for granted after a few chance encounters with a CAA assistant, a disgraced paparazzo, and a former “Mad Men” star with a lot of time on his hands.
But that’s getting ahead of ourselves. When we meet Gail, she’s perfectly content with her small Kansas life. She’s very excited about marrying her fiancé in two weeks, so when the topic of a celebrity “hall pass” comes up, she doesn’t even know how to answer the question. Her fiancé is quick to reveal that he would use his sex pass on Tilda Swinton (before changing his answer to Jennifer Aniston), but she can’t even come up with a single celebrity fantasy when she’s pressured about it. It’s he who has to remind her that she once masturbated to Jon Hamm when she was 16 years old, so she reluctantly decides to use Don Draper as her pass — still assuming that this is just a harmless thought exercise.
But when her fiancé does fuck the real Jennifer Aniston — after meeting her in a hilarious context that will remain unspoiled here — Gail’s life is thrust into crisis. With less than two weeks before she’s set to be married, she accompanies her gay best friend Otto (Miles Gutierrez-Riley) to L.A. for a weekend to take her mind off things. Naturally, they determine that the only way to avenge the injustice is for her to have sex with Jon Hamm to even the score. The two clueless tourists embark on a mission to find him that blatantly mirrors “The Wizard of Oz,” picking up a coterie of misfits along the way who help them out of the kindness of their hearts (and the occasional ulterior motive).
The film overflows with celebrity cameos of both the explainable and absurd variety, but it’s all in service of a greater vision. From a Second Amendment-loving Weird Al Yankovic to yet another “Shark Tank” investor trying their hand at big screen acting, “Gail Daughtry” is a film that’s best watched with a face sheet. All of them are funny, but nobody tops John Slattery, who gives a hysterically self-deprecating performance as a fictional version of his post-“Mad Men” self. Unemployed and brimming with confidence that crumbles at the slightest provocation, the self-proclaimed “Slat Man” is desperate to get back into Hamm’s good graces. He sells Gail on his proximity to his former co-star, only for her to find out that their current relationship consists of little more than unanswered text messages. He becomes one more addition to their traveling party, and he remains the straw that stirs the drink for the remainder of the film.
The plot takes quite a few wild digressions on our heroes’ way to meeting Hamm (who also gives an excellent performance as himself). But anyone familiar with Wain and Marino’s work should know that all of this plot summary is worth little more than the digital paper that it’s not actually printed on. Much like “Wet Hot American Summer” and “They Came Together,” “Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass” is best understood as a basket of jokes and non sequiturs that simply need some kind of framework to keep things semi-coherent. That’s a compliment, of course, as these are very, very funny jokes. Wain and Marino have turned the dumb punchline into a precise science, alternating between wholesomeness and vulgarity with such mastery that you’ll barely have time to catch your breath before you’re ready to start laughing again.
The old cliche that writing about a great film is like dancing about architecture has some truth to it, and this writer is well aware that nothing he could put down into words will be as funny as watching the damn thing. But 25 years after “Wet Hot American Summer” premiered at Sundance, it’s a relief to know that Wain and Marino are still at the absolute top of their game. Here’s hoping we get 25 more years of movies from them — by then, the world might be ready for “Gail Daughtry: Ten Years Later.”
Grade: A-
“Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass” premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. It is currently seeking U.S. distribution.
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