If you like David Wain, you'll like 'Gail Daughtry'
Sony Pictures Classics
Maybe there’s something real to be explored about aligning fantasy and reality as an attempt to fulfill a celebrity sex pass — pretty self-explanatory — takes a woman who once wrote a column called “Why I’m never leaving this town” out of Kansas and into the very different entertainment industry world of L.A. But “Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass” is directed/co-written by David Wain (“Wet Hot American Summer,” “Role Models,” “Wanderlust”), so jokes take precedence over depth as the silly dominates the story, and only you know if that’s going to work on your end.
It does on mine: Though “GDATCSP” is no “WHAS,” it’s also better than “The Ten” and somewhere in the ballpark of “They Came Together,” which is neither the stuff of classics nor an hour and a half you’ll regret. Sometimes a movie is too funny for you to care if it’s also kinda working against its own premise.
Because “Gail Daughtry” is very directly more “The Wizard of Oz” than any sort of commentary on modern relationships or monogamy or celebrity or really much of anything. After her fiancé (Michael Cassidy) sleeps with Jennifer Aniston following a book signing (Aniston’s delivery of the world’s most basic recipes is excellent), Gail (a very appealing Zoey Deutch) heads to L.A. with her hair salon colleague/Toto anagram Otto (Miles Gutierrez-Riley) and progressively gathers a trio of supporters (Ben Wang, co-writer Ken Marino, and, yes, John Slattery) not so much needing a heart, brain, and courage but the hope and optimism of Gail’s perpetually sunny nature. She’s gleefully confident she’ll be able to find and sleep with the Wizard — wait, not the Wizard; I meant Jon Hamm — and the movie gets far more mileage from Gail’s cheerful journey than the weak and obligatory goons (Joe Lo Truglio, Mather Zickel) on her tail after an airport briefcase mix-up.
So, instead of a fish out of water story, or even a lighthearted look at turning a long-term commitment into an even longer one, “Gail Daughtry” is a goofy adventure with the brains of “Hall Pass” but way more big laughs. No point in spoiling any of those here; just remember that the best comedies sometimes make you crack up and care but there’s plenty of value in just being a hoot. And it’s still fun to see what good stuff is in a mixed bag.
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