REVIEW. In GAIL DAUGHTRY AND THE CELEBRITY SEX PASS, Fidelity Comes With an Asterisk.

Poster from David Wain's funny, chaotic comedy, Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass.

Many years ago when I was almost ready to walk down the aisle the first time, my prospective life partner and I were having dinner with married friends when the topic of marital fidelity came up. The male quipped: "We're happily faithful, unless, of course, you know...she has the opportunity to fuck Tom Cruise." "Excuse me?" I responded, trying not to choke on my chardonnay. I thought our friends were joking...sort of.

Turns out that night, I learned about the "celebrity sex pass" rule: ordinary (re: non-famous) people promise to be blissfully faithful forever unless one - or both - of them has the opportunity to screw someone famous. That person would be identified in advance so there was no question about who or what to expect. My friend had already named Tom Cruise as her potential main squeeze. Note: To date, I have heard nothing to substantiate any such hook-up. My intended proclaimed Janis Joplin would be his choice. "She's dead," I snapped back. My future ex just stared at me. Maybe I should have read between the sheets then.

Needless to say, my forever together future did not work out with this guy. My celebrity fuck partners would have been Richard Gere or Rick Springfield, or "The Two Dicks" as my ex snidely referred to them, an admission that became yet another sore point in our relationship. More later.

In any case, it was with a bit of whimsy and déjà vu that I read the premise for co-writer (with Ken Marino)/director David Wain's new comedy, Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass. Engaged high school sweethearts Tom (Michael Cassidy) and Gail (Zoey Deutch) are two weeks from their wedding when the celebrity sex pass topic comes up. Tom chooses Tilda Swinton, Gail picks Jon Hamm, not thinking anything of their choices until Tom meets Jennifer Aniston (in one of several clever cameos here) at a book signing and has impromptu sex with her. Gail, crestfallen by this unexpected turn of events, decides that the only way she can forgive him (she reaches her conclusion in a very funny scene with a psychic) is to shag Jon Hamm.

And so this goofy tale of a Kansas hairdresser continues as we follow the wacky sequence of events that take Gail to Los Angeles (and a hairdressers's convention, no less), to secure a tryst with Hamm. With her trusted bestie Otto (Miles Gutierrez-Riley) in tow (actually, it's the other way around), a most implausible adventure ensures. Along the way, suitcases are switched, criminals are in hot pursuit, Gail and Otto enlist several willing accomplices, including Ben Wang, fellow Mad Man alum John Slattery and co-writer Marino who finagle and finesse their way through Hollywood bureaucracy, international finance, and celebrity culture.

The jokes fly as quickly as the pop culture references (mostly film and TV), with cameos popping up almost as often as the witty one-liners. In addition to Aniston, there's Henry Winkler, Weird Al Yankovic, Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Penn Jillette, and more. Blink and you'll miss one. This is a comedy that never drags, where the dialogue is as rapid as the action, and paying attention essential to the movie experience. The unfortunately small audience at the matinee I attended was older (re: all over 50), and our laughs were perfectly in sync with the action on screen. I'm not sure if a younger audience would appreciate the script's vocab-heavy intelligence, its celebrity allusions, or the numerous sarcastic throwaways, but all of these made for a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon at the theater. If you've not paying attention (re: listening), you'll be apt to miss much of the action and the fun. My husband - who's a hard sell when it comes to comedy - giggled and guffawed his way through the entire film.

In the midst of all this mayhem is a not-always-subtle analogy to the 1939 classic, The Wizard of Oz, with everything from Gail's red shoes and farmgirlish dress (she is from Kansas, remember), her companions's individual personal needs (a new job, a new acting gig, respect as a photographer), and Jon Hamm standing in as an unlikely, if heart-throbbing, Wizard. His grand entrance late in movie via a huge hot air balloon seals the Oz comparison and reminds us that whimsical stories with fairy tale situations need not be spoon-fed or saccharine. They can be jam-packed with profanity, sex, flashes of violence, complicated plot twists, ambivalent endings, and enough unresolved childhood angst to fill an extra large popcorn bucket. Stay through the credits, though, as a few loose ends are hilarioiusly tied up there.

At a thrifty ninety-four minutes, Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass is efficient in its use of time, never letting jokes run on too long or scenes become tedious. Paul Thomas Anderson could take a lesson from Wain's comedic timing and effective development of complex, often chaotic plot lines and situations with precision and brevity. No need to overextend comic conceits, as Anderson did with last year's two and a half hour Oscar-winning endurance test, One Battle After Another.

Here, one crisis leads to another in a seamless chain of events that are as far-fetched as they are funny. The ensemble cast seems to be having a grand time, with Deutch centering the action with her consistently cheerful, but never completely naive, portrayal of midwestern determination and pragmatic optimism. If you can't catch Celebrity Sex Pass during its current limited theatrical run, put it on your short list for movies to stream this fall.

In the summer of 1986, I drove a group of nine high school students from Cleveland, OH to College Park, MD to attend the National History Day finals competition, held at the University of Maryland. We arrived in time to learn that basketball phenom Len Bias had died, leaving the campus swarming with reporters, investigators of various kinds, and hundreds of high school history competitors. It was nothing short of controlled chaos.

One of the teenagers in the van with me was David Wain, who was a finalist with several other students in the "documentary film" category. Though Wain was not in any of my AP US History classses, his razor-sharp wit and interest in the details necessary to construct a cohesive storyline were clear, so it was a special delight watching one of his current movie projects. His keen sense of humor and deep knowledge of movie history were used to good advantage.

Anyway, I've never acted on the idea of a "celebrity sex pass." The opportunity to hook-up with one or both of "The Two Dicks" (which is now, ironically, the name of an on-again/off-again concert series with Rick Springfield and fellow 80s heartthrob Richard Marx), never happened. Richard Gere and I have never crossed paths and, though I've met Rick Springfield several times, the option of a quickie has never presented itself. And so it goes.

For now, though, I'll just have to rethink the whole celebrity sex pass thing. After all, I'm not in Kansas (Ohio?) anymore.

*******

Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass is currently playing in limited theatrical release and is rated "R" for profantiy, adult situations and mild bloody violence. It premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival and is scheduled to stream on Netflix later in the fall.

And, if you'd like to check out the blog post I wrote a few years ago about my encounters with Rick Springfield, here's the link: https://www.mjthemovies.com/post/my-father-s-chair-love-loss-and-a-rick-springfield-concert.