{"id":921649,"date":"2026-07-08T20:50:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T20:50:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/921649\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T20:50:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T20:50:23","slug":"gail-daughtry-and-the-celebrity-sex-pass-review-los-angeles-meets-oz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/921649\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass’ review: Los Angeles meets Oz"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The screwball joy \u201cGail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass\u201d is about a one-in-a-million lovers\u2019 bluff that comes true. Midwestern childhood sweethearts Gail (Zoey Deutch<\/a>) and Tom (Michael Cassidy<\/a>) are two weeks from their wedding when the dopey groom-to-be sleeps with Jennifer Aniston<\/a>, the one star he had joking permission to bonk. To balance the score, Gail and her best friend Otto (Miles Gutierrez-Riley) fly from Kansas to Los Angeles so she can seduce her famous freebie, Jon Hamm<\/a>. A one-night Hamm stand will salvage the chipper cheerleader\u2019s happily-ever-after with her sweet but stupid former quarterback \u2014 if she can convince the actor to participate.<\/p>\n

Director David Wain<\/a> has made a sex comedy that\u2019s as innocent as a Labrador puppy. For extra cuteness, he\u2019s even modeled the structure on \u201cThe Wizard of Oz.\u201d Gail and Otto skip along Hollywood\u2019s Walk of Fame, aided in their quest by a humbled paparazzo (Ken Marino<\/a>), a quick-talking CAA agent-in-training (Ben Wang<\/a>) and \u201cMad Men\u2019s\u201d John Slattery playing a scumbag mockery of himself<\/a> as a has-been pining for the days when he and Hamm were AMC\u2019s prize studs. All of Slattery\u2019s lines are filthy or pathetic. He\u2019s terrific.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the wickedly witchy villain Ludovica (\u201cWhite Lotus\u201d breakout Sabrina Impacciatore<\/a>) is furious that her minions accidentally swapped her luggage with Gail\u2018s at LAX. The laziness of the old-fashioned suitcase switcheroo device is part of the movie\u2019s charm. Wain and longtime collaborator and co-screenwriter Marino would rather invest their energy cramming in so many jokes that I could quote a dozen punchlines and barely spoil a thing. (I won\u2019t.) <\/p>\n

My usual problem with capers is they almost always climax with a tedious chase sequence. Thankfully, Wain undermines the formula, simply snatching clever ideas as they flit past. One of my favorite throwaway giggles comes when a goon gives up pursuing Gail after half a block, wheezing \u201cStop … running … I\u2019m … tired!\u201d<\/p>\n

Deutch is perfect casting for plucky Gail, who commits to bagging Hamm with such gumption that she jumps on a hotel mattress like a little kid. She\u2019s so pure of heart that you\u2019re not sure she\u2019ll know what to do in the bedroom if she actually finds him. Since Deutch\u2019s first lead role in the undervalued 2014 \u201cTwilight\u201d piggybacker \u201cVampire Academy,\u201d<\/a> her screen presence has been 15-going-on-45: a dimpled ingenue with the confident patter of a Preston Sturges<\/a> heroine. I\u2019ve liked her in everything but her anachronistic appeal is especially good in movies like \u201cGail Daughtry\u201d that crank reality up a notch so everything moves fast and silly.<\/p>\n

The \u201cOz\u201d allusions get contradictory and distracting. Loyal Otto \u2014 rearrange the letters in his name \u2014 has a Tin Man-esque steel plate in his head; Marino and Slattery both share the Cowardly Lion\u2019s temper. Apparently, Los Angeles boasts two Emerald Cities: CAA and the Chateau Marmont. The former is heralded with a blast of horns; the latter guards its inner sanctum behind Tobie Windham\u2019s officious sentry. Like David Lynch\u2019s \u201cWild at Heart,\u201d<\/a> the plotting doesn\u2019t hew so closely to the Yellow Brick Road that its beats feel inevitable. Still, I appreciated how cinematographer Kevin Atkinson alludes to the dusty Kansas prairie with a shot of a beige strip mall.<\/p>\n

The tourism board should study how Wain sells a tacky California vacation. Hollywood Boulevard hasn\u2019t looked this fetchingly sleazy since \u201cPretty Woman.\u201d<\/a> Actual tourists even get their own close-ups in a sequence where a henchman (Joe Lo Truglio) waves a photograph of Deutch outside the Chinese Theatre asking people to help him find her. (They can\u2019t, but one recognizes Lo Truglio from \u201cBrooklyn Nine-Nine.\u201d)<\/p>\n

We fall back in love with the city through Gail and Otto\u2019s excitement. \u201cUniversal CityWalk, Bubba Gump Shrimp, woooo!\u201d Otto hoots. From musty star maps to ratty psychics, the movie so adores Los Angeles that Thomas Lennon\u2019s hair stylist character is a riff on local billboard king Chaz Dean<\/a>. That gag that won\u2019t translate beyond a handful of ZIP Codes. So be it. <\/p>\n

Wain makes shooting on location seem obvious. Why build Ludovica\u2019s favorite red sauce joint when Colombo\u2019s Italian Steakhouse is right there in Eagle Rock? As a bonus, filming in Los Angeles makes it easier for Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Richard Kind, Fred Melamed, Penn Jillette and the actual Aniston to pop by for a scene. Rudd and Banks could have shot their 20-second cameos as a pit stop on a grocery run, a brief thank-you to Wain for launching their comedy careers in 2001\u2019s \u201cWet Hot American Summer.\u201d<\/a> There is no place like home. <\/p>\n

Today\u2019s cast-dependent indie financing model makes it harder for filmmakers to introduce us to fresh faces. Here, Wain manages to squeeze in a couple of rising talents: Gutierrez-Riley\u2019s steady, supportive Otto and Wang\u2019s scene-stealing motormouth, a lighter take on the anxious braggart he played in last fall\u2019s \u201cThe Long Walk.\u201d<\/a> Cassidy, the actor playing Gail\u2019s immature fianc\u00e9, has been kicking around the business for ages, but finds a funny new gear as a square who is genuinely surprised his girlfriend is upset he slept with a star of \u201cFriends.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlike Dorothy, Gail\u2019s lust for life proves too big for her small town. But \u201cGail Daughtry\u201d is less about sex and personal empowerment than the cult of celebrity. Here, every level of notoriety comes with its own awkward perils: Henry Winkler is mistaken for John Travolta, Elizabeth Perkins is spotted driving a taxi, and Slattery tries to curry favor with a desk clerk who recognizes him from \u201cMad Men\u201d but doesn\u2019t care.<\/p>\n

The film stops several yellow bricks short of erecting a temple to the sacrifices of fame. Yet you hear a kernel of truth when Gail and the gang break into the mansion of \u201cWeird Al\u201d Yankovic<\/a>, who yells, \u201cYou people think just because you bought a ticket to one of my concerts that you have the right to invade my sanctuary?\u201d No. But buying a ticket to laugh at this satire is the right call.<\/p>\n

‘Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass’<\/p>\n

Rated:<\/b> R, for sexual content, violence\/bloody images and language<\/p>\n

Running time:<\/b> 1 hour, 34 minutes<\/p>\n

Playing:<\/b> Opening Friday, July 10 in wide release<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The screwball joy \u201cGail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass\u201d is about a one-in-a-million lovers\u2019 bluff that comes…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":921650,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[28],"tags":[240876,372028,372029,159172,171,242980,240877,75176,224,3196,53,372027,131643,33099,372030,67,132,68,372026,92922],"class_list":["post-921649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-ben-wang","tag-celebrity-sex-pass","tag-co-screenwriter-marino","tag-elizabeth-banks","tag-entertainment","tag-gail-daughtry","tag-john-slattery","tag-jon-hamm","tag-los-angeles","tag-movie","tag-movies","tag-otto","tag-oz","tag-paul-rudd","tag-quick-talking-caa","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-wain","tag-zoey-deutch"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116886335163055140","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=921649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/921650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=921649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=921649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=921649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}