⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ | Rated R | 93 minutes

Are you old enough to remember Y2K and the hysteria surrounding its impending doom? It was great for TV news ratings as we were served increasingly worrying stories about mass computer failures around the world, potential economic collapses, and the apocalypse.

For those who aren’t familiar, “Y2K” refers to a computer programming issue affecting most aging systems of the time that handled the year as a two-digit bit rather than a full four digits like we do today. This had the potential, they said, to crash systems around the world as the clock hit midnight on December 31, 1999… when systems would presumably think it’s the year 1900 instead of 2000.

Fortunately, none of the doomsaying came to fruition. But what if it did? That’s the question SNL alum Kyle Mooney poses in his directorial debut with “Y2K” from A24. He penned the script along with fantasy author Evan Winter, whose influence is felt throughout the fantastical story… but this is certainly a positive.

The film opens on Eli’s (Jaeden Martell, “It”) computer, dialed into AOL of the 90’s, perfectly capturing the chaos that was Instant Messenger and the curse of Away Messages and trying to download ANYTHING. This is also our introduction to the “Sticky Boys” friendship of two high school juniors Eli and Tae-Bo loving Danny (Julian Dennison, “Deadpool 2”) as they contemplate their New Year’s Even plans. The choice is one that’s familiar to us high school outcasts: stay home and be lame or try to go to the “popular” party. After some amateur pre-gaming thanks to a weak lock on the parent’s liquor cabinet, the boys are ready to face the music at the party with some good old-fashioned liquid courage.

At the party, we are hilariously introduced to the four major groups one finds at a high school party in the late-90s: the stoners, the DJ kids, the hip-hoppers and the pop kids. Just so happens, Eli is a mixtape (er, mix CD) aficionado as myself and brings his new “Y2K Mix” to the party… and we’re treated to an exemplary performance of Sisqo’s “Thong Song” lip-synced to perfection by Danny. It’s an amazing highlight to a script full of nostalgic nods to a bygone era… but not in a way that clobbers the viewer over the head. Each nod is thoughtful and accurate… a task that is much more difficult to pull off than it would seem.

At the party, we see cracks between friendships (as one typically does in any high school party scene in any film from that same late 90’s/early 2000’s era) and we see what COULD have happened had all our electronics gone insane when the clock strikes midnight.

This part of the film earns its stripes as a straight-up teen horror flick with kills much like you would have seen in era-specific movies like “Scream” and “The Faculty”. It also keeps the action moving swiftly through its deft use of Mooney’s over-the-top at times humor. The start of the technology apocalypse is used to introduce us to the concept of talking to people outside our own cliques: a concept scarier to high schoolers (and some adults) than any horror movie.

The cast is truly stacked with amazing talent. Joining Eli on his quest against their new robot overlords are popular-girl Laura (Rachel Zegler), lesbian-ish Ash (Lachlan Watson), hipster-in-training CJ (Daniel Zolghadri), stoner-skater-bully Farkas (Eduardo Franco), shroomer-stoner Garret (director Kyle Mooney), popular-boy-older-ex-to-Laura Jonas (Mason Gooding), and Soccer Chris – that’s really his name – played by The Kid Laroi.

There are some special cast members as well, but I don’t want to spoil the goods. Trust me, if you’re a child of the 90’s or a fan of the decade, you are going to LOVE the rest of the actors in this film. You can tell that everyone, from the cast to the director, were having a blast on-set. It shines through in every bizarrely hilarious moment.

Mooney does an amazing job capturing the spirit of teen movies in the late 90’s with accurate shooting styles, outlandish plots and the humor to match. I haven’t laughed this hard in a movie this year. The soundtrack he selected is straight off an MTV Party-To-Go album. You’ve never used a Porta-Potty until you’ve used one while being serenaded with Brian McKnight’s “Back At One.”

If you were born after the Y2K era, you’ll get to see what life was like for Xennials and Gen X’ers… yes, it really was a simpler time but growing more complex with technology being introduced to our lives in increasingly perverse ways. “Y2K” is this generation’s “Shaun of the Dead” and a love-letter to Xennials everywhere.

Where the film really excels is using humor and horror together to stress the importance of interpersonal connections in a world full of diversions and ways to prevent talking to your classmate or co-worker. If you take nothing else away from this raucous trip to the best timeline: just set your devices down and just talk to other humans once in a while.

Thanks for taking me back to my best era, Kyle Mooney.