By John Corrado

Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass, the gonzo new comedy from director David Wain (Wet Hot American Summer), functions as a mix of crude sex humour, celebrity cameos, and over the top homage to The Wizard of Oz.

You see, main character Gail Daughtry (Zoey Deutch) is really just a girl from Kansas, about to marry her high school sweetheart Tom (Michael Cassidy).

When Tom uses his hypothetical celebrity hall pass to actually hook up with Jennifer Aniston, Gail becomes convinced that the only way to set things right and save their relationship is by having sex with her celebrity crush; Jon Hamm.

She sets out to Los Angeles with her gay BFF Otto (Miles Gutierrez-Riley), on a mission to track down Jon Hamm and settle the score, so to speak. Joining them on the mission are a ragtag group of guys including a paparazzo named Vincent (co-writer Ken Marino), who’s been after a photo of Hamm for years, Caleb (Ben Wang), a young assistant at talent agency CAA, and Hamm’s Mad Men co-star John Slattery, who is very amusing playing himself.

This very much feels like the work of David Wain, who in addition to the 2001 cult classic Wet Hot American Summer, also directed comedies like Role Models, Wanderlust, and the underrated rom-com spoof movie They Came Together. The various running gags and one-liners throughout Wain and Marino’s screenplay keep it afloat, with a decent ratio of jokes to laughs. It’s built around an absurd plot that gets increasingly outlandish as it goes along, bolstered by a cast of actors saying and doing ridiculous things with a (mostly) straight face.

It’s all very goofy, but also sort of endearing, with Deutch’s charming and delightful performance carrying pretty much the entire movie. We already know her as a likeable romantic lead from Netflix rom-coms like Set It Up and the recent Voicemails for Isabelle, and this film allows her to show a different comedic range with her wacky but still sincere portrayal of Gail. There is an element of camp to all of the performances here that allows the characters to be over-the-top, but still work within the film’s heightened reality.

The ability of everyone here to play it straight within the almost surreal world of the film gives Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass a surprising amount of mileage for something that could’ve felt more like a sketch stretched to feature length. It’s the sort of comedy that gets just enough juice out of its premise thanks to the game cast (and various celebrities who come along for the ride), while also not overstaying its welcome at around ninety minutes. Wain and crew do a good job keeping us amused for the whole runtime.

Film Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)

Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass opens exclusively in theatres in limited release on July 10th, including at TIFF Lightbox in Toronto. It’s being distributed in Canada by Mongrel Media.