Sundance Review: Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass is David Wain’s Comedic Tribute to Los Angeles.

      As the world continues to stew in its unpleasant culture, the creative team behind The State and Wet Hot American Summer returns to rescue you from the relentless barrage of bad news—if only for a brief 90 minutes.

      Director David Wain and screenwriter Ken Marino, now in their third decade of delivering a distinctive style of irreverent comedy in film, first made waves with their MTV sketch show The State, followed by the cult classic Wet Hot American Summer, which debuted at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. This year, they are back with Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass, a hilarious Hollywood farce that showcases their trademark absurdist humor.

      You know you're in for a treat at the cinema when Fred Melamed, portraying a fourth-wall-breaking mailman, steps in as the narrator. He paints a picture of a small Kansas town where hairdresser Gail Daughtry (Zoey Deutch) is living her best life, surrounded by great friends and eagerly anticipating marrying her high school sweetheart to start a family. Unfortunately, Gail unwittingly derails that suburban dream when she takes her fiancé Tom to a book signing by Jennifer Aniston (yes, that Jennifer Aniston). During their journey, they talk about the one celebrity each is permitted to hook up with. After shifting from Tilda Swinton to Aniston, Gail catches the two in a compromising situation. Dejected, Gail's salon friend Otto (Miles Gutierrez-Riley) persuades her to accompany him to Los Angeles to pursue her celebrity sex pass—Jon Hamm. However, upon arriving in Tinseltown, a classic bag mix-up (thanks to Henry Winkler) entangles them in an international conspiracy aimed at collapsing the global financial system.

      For those unfamiliar with Wet Hot American Summer or other films by Wain, they all reflect a particular comedic style often tagged as anti-comedy, where being unfunny is itself humorous, and making "bad" or obvious jokes is done knowingly. Wain adopts this ironic perspective in his films, embracing clichés, melodrama, and metatextual elements. Lines are delivered with a mix of sincerity and insincerity, while cinematic tropes are handled in a self-aware manner. In their satire, there is a conversation with the audience, underscored by a wink of “you know what we’re doing,” which Wain and his usual collaborators have managed to establish as a recognizable signature. Gail Daughtry embodies this style even more strongly, akin to Wain and Marino’s The Ten than the broader Role Models.

      With Wain and Marino focusing on their own industry, they weave their narrative around The Wizard of Oz. As Gail and Otto journey to see Jon Hamm, their group expands to include ambitious talent agency receptionist Caleb (Ben Wang), a washed-up paparazzo Vincent (Ken Marino), and former actor John Slattery. Deutch, Gutierrez-Riley, and Wang may be newcomers to the Wain-Marino universe, but they easily keep pace with the rapid-fire delivery of their castmates.

      As in Wain’s earlier comedies, the exaggerated world is filled with outlandish characters played by fellow alumni from The State, including Kerri Kenny-Silver, Michael Ian Black, and Kevin Allison. Joe Lo Truglio and Mather Zickel portray bumbling assassins in pursuit of Gail, while Tom Lennon dives into the role of Remy Fontaine, a celebrity hairstylist and master of the slip curl. True to form, Wain's cast is complemented by numerous celebrity cameos, featuring a gun-wielding “Weird” Al Yankovic and a humorously silent Penn Jillette.

      The core four cast members traverse Hollywood, from its commercialized tourist attractions to the headquarters of talent agency CAA and an Old West film set. While the film pokes fun at various aspects of the city, it also conveys a fondness for Los Angeles. As productions relocate to the city synonymous with filmmaking in search of tax breaks, Wain and Marino's latest work is filmed entirely on location.

      If you were to ask David Wain and Ken Marino if their modest independent film could single-handedly revitalize theatrical comedy, original storytelling, and production in Los Angeles, I bet they would confidently respond: absolutely.

      Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass had its premiere at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.