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Despite what its title might suggest, \u201cGail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass\u201d is not a raunchy comedy, nor is it a love story. The slightly clunky, overexplained title is an embodiment for the wonky tone created by director David Wain, who used to be among the top writers\/directors within absurdist comedy. There isn\u2019t the same market for studio comedies as there was when Wain was making \u201cWe Came Together\u201d and \u201cRole Models,\u201d and thus \u201cGail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass\u201d is an independent production<\/a><\/span><\/span> that feels like a throwback to the scrappy, creative style of his early work. Although there\u2019s a reading of the film as a satire on the idealistic perception of Hollywood and how insincere it actually is (something Wain would obviously know a fair amount about), the film itself is an amusing retelling of \u2018The Wizard of Oz\u2019 that goes surprisingly deep in its homages. Not every joke lands, but they\u2019re so fast and frequent that there\u2019s rarely an absence of energy.<\/p>\n Gail Daughtry (Zoey Deutch), whose name is an anagram of sorts for \u201cDorothy Gail,\u201d has lived in a small town in Kansas for her entire life, and is engaged to marry her boyfriend of many years, Tom (Michael Cassidy). Although there\u2019s nothing to suggest tension within their relationship, Gail picks up on a conversation during her job as a hairstylist about \u201ccelebrity sex passes,\u201d which sparks a discussion with Tom about which famous person they\u2019d be willing to let the other sleep with. Gail doesn\u2019t expect Tom to literally get intimate with his chosen celebrity crush (who, without spoiling it, is revealed in an amusingly self-aware cameo), and decides to journey with her co-worker Otto (Miles Gutierrez-Riley) to Los Angeles. After a meeting with a fortune teller, Gail becomes convinced it is her destiny to even out the playing field by sleeping with her celebrity of choice: Jon Hamm.<\/p>\n The \u201cWizard of Oz\u201d allusion goes even further when Gail and Otto collect a group of friends upon their journey into the wild, wonderful world of Hollywood; there\u2019s the struggling CAA agent<\/a><\/span><\/span> Caleb (Ben Wang), the undershelved celebrity photographer Vincent (Ken Marino), and John Slattery as a version of himself who hasn\u2019t been given many career opportunities in the wake of his run with Hamm on \u2018Mad Men.\u2019 Contrived reasons are given for each of them to reach Hamm, but the story also has its \u201cWicked Witch\u201d in the criminal mastermind (Sabrina Impacciatore), who dispatches her hitmen Sergio (Joe Lo Truglio) and Niccolo (Mather Zickel) to track down Gail after she accidentally obtains a stash of secret CIA documents. There\u2019s no shortage of other celebrities cameos, most of whom have worked with Wain previously, but the film is impressively able to give each of them a comedy scene to play off of; at no point does it feel as if Wain is getting his famous friends to replace an actual joke.<\/p>\n That the logic of the story is flimsy is something that is brought up frequently, as Wain continues a tradition most prominent in \u201cWe Came Together\u201d where the film constantly lampoons the parameters of its structure and the constraints of its production. This is escalated even further because \u201cGail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass\u201d was clearly made on the cheaper end, and there are some clever gags relating to the types of Hollywood attractions popular among tourists who wouldn\u2019t know any better. Even if there are some jokes at the expense of CAA, tabloid journalism, and Hamm\u2019s previous projects, \u201cGail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass\u201d rarely feels like an in-joke. That the characters so earnestly accept every unusual narrative misdirection is essential to retaining the irreverent tone.<\/p>\nAlso Check: 20 Hilarious Comedies on HBO Max<\/a><\/span><\/h3>\n