Director: David Wain
Writers: Ken Marino, David Wain
Stars: Zoey Deutch, Jon Hamm, Ken Marino
Synopsis: When her fiancé uses their “celebrity pass” agreement, Midwest bride Gail Daughtry travels to Hollywood seeking revenge by pursuing her own celebrity encounter.
Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass is David Wain’s first theatrically released film in over a decade. That fact alone should be all that’s necessary to get audiences out of their homes. And yet, Wain’s latest isn’t merely opting to coast on the barren wasteland of options that is the pure comedy film to fill seats. Instead, this film weaponizes two surefire elements of contemporary cinema to maximum effect: an overabundance of recognizable cameos, and the immensely charming screen presence of the wonderful Zoey Deutch, a key quality she has proven to wield time and time again. With this out-and-out comedy, Wain and co-writer Ken Marino place Deutch in the titular role and allow her to shine in the city of stars. And needless to say, the city of Los Angeles is shining quite bright with the amount of stars out on this go-around. Shooting entirely in LA, aside from being wonderful for the industry at large, all but guarantees the call sheet has room for somebody audiences love being both accessible and available for a quick day shoot. And the wonderful ensemble wastes no time in flexing its extensive range by starting off with a delightfully silly introductory note from Fred Melamed as a Midwestern mailman and the film’s wry narrator.
From the very first words written for this film, Wain and Marino waste no time setting up their particular brand of comedy. This is a goofy film, but it never comes across as thoughtless. It’s these qualities which have always allowed Wain’s sense of humor to excel, even going all the way back to the days of the comedy trio, Stella. For all the random asides and absurdist breaks present in his oeuvre, there’s a crisp, clear, and distinct through line in the comedy which works wonders. The sharpness of Gail Daughtry lies in how often the comedy veers towards the most obvious path for laughs, yet it still manages to shock and surprise the audience along the way. Within the familiar comedy tropes that can become boring lies the potential to subvert audience expectations. It’s a challenge the comedian filmmaker takes on whenever granted the opportunity. And Wain can just as easily serve up exactly what’s expected from any given payoff should the moment deem it necessary. That balance is handled particularly well in this film, knowing when to utilize subtlety versus brashness. And of course, it certainly helps to have such a bevy of talent handling this sort of material on the screen.
Deutch is dialed all the way up as the titular Gail Daughtry. It’s a name she ensures everybody she meets in Los Angeles won’t forget in one particularly great recurring bit. The assignment is exactly what one might expect from the logline: this is a pure archetypal performance. It’s the exact bread-and-butter characterization which Wain and co. perfected with the masterful Wet Hot American Summer. But that intentional and overtly recognizable character building doesn’t carry the negative qualities which might be associated with describing a character as one-note. In fact, it’s often sincere and charming.
Deutch isn’t just giving a heightened performance because it’s what the film and character requires. Rather, it’s a precise understanding of what makes her such a beloved performer. So many of her performances revolve around a charm and innocence that remains infinitely endearing. As Gail, Deutch is able to weaponize an unexplored, Midwestern naïveté in a way which makes her character’s fish out of water adventure a genuine joy. It also allows Wain to poke fun at the oft-hollow nature of Los Angeles’ general vibe and celebrity culture at the same time. But that doesn’t mean the luster of the city is any less dull just because it’s the target of his mockery. Just like Wet Hot American Summer, Gail Daughtry is the result of a team that recognizes the absurdity of a place, yet nevertheless understands its immense power and has a soft spot for its purpose. Within that dichotomy, Wain, Marino, and the entire cast of comedians and celebrities mine its potential to be a comedic playground for all it’s worth.
Despite having an absolute blast with it, Gail Daughtry is, quite frankly, a bit of an absurd film. That’s largely meant to be taken complimentary. Wain has given us a comedy film purely for the sake of comedy. Essentially every line of dialogue is a joke, and there’s physical comedy galore in the moments lacking dialogue. One physical gag involving John Slattery, playing himself, is likely to end up as one of the funniest scenes of 2026. Yet it’s a joke sequence that is as absurd as they come, heightened to the absolute maximum. It’s taken to the point where it will almost certainly alienate some audiences. That’s not a criticism, but rather an exciting observation that Wain, for all his expertise in broad comedy, is still liable to include bits of humor that largely exist because specifically he finds them funny. It’s admirable, even when the quality of the film can sometimes falter because of this determination.
It becomes increasingly more evident across the 90-minute-runtime of Gail Daughtry that everything else in the film ultimately comes second to the jokes. Where it works to great effect in a film like Wet Hot American Summer, that film has a much looser narrative to operate atop. The narrative of this film isn’t complex nor wide-ranging, yet it is more confined simply because of the built-in dilemma of the logline. So whenever Wain departs to the outer edges of that narrative path, sometimes for over-extended sequences, the film can feel a bit rockier than its brisk, more carefree first half. Despite some steam being lost along the way, there’s plenty of intentional dead air for Wain and Marino to work within throughout the film. It’s arguably the space their comedy style works best in, letting the audience become bewildered by every particular choice being made for the sake of laughs. Although it sticks out like a bit of a sore thumb, there’s one great sequence which completely breaks the reality (and cinematic style) of the film entirely. While it can be a bit jarring because it’s a style never returned to, one key joke is guaranteed laughs and is obviously only in the film because it’s such a surefire hit. It’s the type of decision which, again, makes Wain the great comedy filmmaker that he is. For those showing up hoping to laugh, it’s hard to imagine being disappointed by this outing aside from realizing we so rarely get films quite like this theatrically released anymore.
Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass is celebrating its New York premiere at the 2026 Tribeca Festival.
