With a fun, discovery-driven, adventure absurdist approach, a classic studio-style comedy film takes an indie approach by using its star-studded cast, well-thought-out jokes, and riffs on Hollywood’s classic tropes and storylines to create a fascinating comedy about finding out what you really want.
Gail Daughtery (Zoey Deutch) seems to have it all. Through scrapbook-style photos and captions, we see how she appears to live a perfect little life in a small town in, of all places, Kansas (this is not a coincidence). What sparks this journey is what, for a lot of couples, is an innocent conversation between Gail and her fiancé, Jeff. If given the chance, which celebrity would you allow your spouse to sleep with? Jeff says Tilda Swinton—until Gail takes him to a book reading for Jennifer Aniston’s (played by Aniston) new depressing-sounding cookbook that Gail is interested in. He changes his answer to Jennifer, and then goes back to the store to see if he can win her over and manages to do so, much to Gail’s dismay. She thought it would always be a “what if” and feels disappointed at how quickly Jeff chooses to act on the idea.
Trying to discover what she wants for herself, she goes with her best friend and fellow hairstylist Otto (Miles Gutierrez-Riley) to Los Angeles for a hairstyling convention. (If you haven’t clued in, try rearranging the letters of Otto to discover which movie this is riffing off of the most). Quickly though, with the thought of Jeff sleeping with Jennifer Aniston stuck in her brain, the purpose of her journey shifts from the convention to figuring out how to move on with her life and her relationship with him. How can she make sense of what exists between them? Her conclusion is that she should sleep with her top celebrity crush—Jon Hamm—but his location in L.A. is unknown to paparazzi, making her goal a difficult journey.
At the same time, an incident occurs where two criminal operatives delivering world secrets to an Italian crime boss, Ludovica (Sabrina Impacciatore from The White Lotus) switch briefcases with Gail, leaving her with some of the most valuable documents in the U.S. of A. Thus, as she continues trying to find Jon Hamm (our Wizard of Oz) to grant her wish, criminals are also tracking her down. On the way, she encounters three men (who are definitely not similar to the Tin Man, Lion, and Scarecrow) who also want to see Hamm for various reasons. Caleb (Ben Wang) is a CAA intern who wants to move up in the world of Hollywood agents; Vincent (Ken Marino) is a photographer who has always wanted to capture a candid photo of Jon Hamm; and John Slattery—Jon Hamm’s co-star in Mad Men—is portrayed as someone whose career has slowed, and who rarely hears from Hamm anymore. The film keeps its plots tight and its characters expressive as they need to be within a reasonable runtime, packing all the comedy, character moments, and visual jokes into the same scenes that move the plot forward.
The comedy works on different levels throughout the film. It is full of sincere performances that carry humour in varied ways. John Slattery gets to do his best Curb-style audition as a version of himself who is down on his luck and in a very silly mood. Ben Wang as Caleb gets to play one of the most charismatic Asian men in recent film history, but also the first Asian man to call his mom “mommy”—ever. Like, seriously, that does not happen. Every actor gets to be funny by playing sincerely in the face of absurd situations. Director David Wain and co-writer/star Ken Marino call in many favors from celebrities, as people like ‘Weird’ Al Yankovic threaten our main characters with a gun and tell them to “Eat it” as a bullet flies toward them.
Many other famous actors besides Hamm also appear, making for funny cameos. The criminal aspect of the film works well within the plot, and actors like Sabrina Impacciatore and Joe Lo Truglio as criminals are over-the-top and very funny. The film also embraces background jokes that poke fun at the polished reputation L.A. often has, with many visual gags about how seedy and strange the city can be in certain places and circumstances. Some jokes lean into anti-humor, where the gag is that characters cannot finish a joke, run out of words, or say something so absurd that it circles back to being funny. The film is one of the stronger comedies of the year so far from that perspective.
The film is not perfect from a directing standpoint, and it would have been fun to see more set pieces or more distinctive cinematography choices. There also could have been more effective visual jokes. There are a few, but they could have been more frequent. Some jokes do not land, and certain bits or shots feel unnecessary to the story. But a more minimal style works for this purposeful, almost Walmart-vision of L.A., allowing the dialogue and performances to shine.
The riff on The Wizard of Oz works especially well because, unlike Dorothy, Gail does not really know what she is wishing for. Los Angeles is her Oz, where she discovers a new world that opens her mind and imagination to the many possibilities of life—some good, some bad, but all abundant. She is able to see the desires of Caleb, Vincent, and John as inspiration and eye-opening experiences that help her look beyond the more quaint and potentially restrictive life she would have if she stayed a hairstylist’s wife in her small Kansas town. She is portrayed as particularly naive and not online whatsoever and, in this case, that is not treated as inherently positive or negative—rather, she becomes a symbol of someone who needs to meet more people and experience more of the world before deciding what will make her happy. In Gail’s chaotic journey to find Hamm—and the experience that she has with him along the way—helps her realize there may be far more to life than she initially believed.
Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass is available in theatres on July 10th, 2026.
