Better Late Than Never on "Y2K"

About a year ago I remember Kyle Mooney going on a tour of podcasts and tv shows to talk about his new album, which I adore, and a new movie he was directing called "Y2K". I listened and loved the album, but I skipped the movie for the time being. I don't really know why I skipped it either. It got bad reviews, but that hasn't stopped me from seeing stuff before. It wasn't in the theaters too terribly long, but I watch stuff on streaming all the time. And then I kind of just forgot about it. I was then checking on the A24 list on HBOMax and "Y2K" was one of the first movies that popped up. So I sat back while I waited for the repair person to show up and watched.

I found myself enjoying the movie. I'm a Kyle Mooney fan. I loved when he was on "SNL". He used to make me crack up with the characters he would play, especially the 90's comedian who would bomb on weekend update. I really enjoyed "Brigsby Bear" . I think it is one of the more underrated movies to come out in the 2010's. I watched all of his Netflix show, "Saturday Morning All Star Hits", and loved how weird and dark it would get. And when he shows up in bit parts on tv shows or movies, I get stoked. I also like his and Beck Bennett's podcast, although they don't always record on any kind of schedule. He makes me laugh and I enjoy his brand of comedy. So I was going into "Y2K" with an open mind, which I think is the best way to watch a movie like this. It isn't world changing film making. I don't think Mooney and crew thought they were going to win any awards. But you could tell in watching this movie that he was having a good time and he wanted to tell a gory and weird and funny tale about what he thought would happen if viruses messed with computers on New Years Eve of 1999.

This movie was perfect for someone my age because Y2K was such a big deal. Everyone talked about it. We all wondered what would happen. We all backed up our computers. I can remember sitting in my basement with some friends as midnight rolled around and nothing happened. But this movie takes us into a world of something happening. The movie starts off like any throwback to the late 90's that we have now. There's the music of the time, the fashion and kids getting ready to ring in the new year. Jaeden Martell plays the main character, Eli. His best buddy, Danny, is played by Julian Dennison. They are dorky outcasts that just want to be accepted by the cool kids. They get drunk one night and decide to go to the big party held at "Soccer" Chris's house. Soccer Chris is played by singer The Kid Laroi, and he does an okay enough job playing a jerk. But Eli's main goal is to kiss his crush at midnight, Laura, who is played by Rachel Zegler. She kisses Soccer Chris instead, and Eli feels rejected. Then some wild stuff starts to happen. It hits midnight, and a few minutes later the machines start to take out the kids at the party. It is gruesome and hilarious. I thought it was pretty great the way Mooney directed these scenes. They were scary but also funny. After the massacre at the party, where Danny unfortunately leaves us, we have four people on the run. Eli, Laura, CJ and Ash. All get away. They did have a fifth kid with them, but he tried to do a trick with some rollerblades and breaks his neck. See, funny the way they off some of the characters, at least in my opinion. From here on out it is all about survival, but they also make it funny along the way. Mooney plays a stoner movie clerk who happens to have a nice, safe location free of internet. But he too meets his demise, and again it is hilarious. But this movie is really all about Eli getting up the courage to tell Laura how he feels, all the while the world is seemingly coming to an end due to Y2K.

I laughed a lot during my watch. I think Mooney has a good, and unique sense of humor. I find his stuff to work for me. I don;t necessarily agree with the critics on this one, but to each their own I guess. If you want to watch a movie that is a good time, and to turn your brain off for a bit, "Y2K" is a solid choice. I liked it a good bit. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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An Ode to the Comedy Stylings of Kyle Mooney

My algorithm for my Instagram reels has been throwing a bunch of comedy stuff my way. I love it. I'm a big fan of standup. I get a bunch of standup clips now. My favorite movies are comedies. I get plenty of trailers and classic scenes now. And I love going back and watching "SNL" clips and cast members doing their own thing. One such cast member that has been showing up a bunch lately is Kyle Mooney.

I adore Kyle Mooney. I think he might be one of the most underrated and funniest cast members of all time on "SNL". He has been around longer than most of you think, and his hit rate is pretty damn high. Mooney did some of my favorite things on "SNL". He used to show up as a 90's stand up on weekend update when he was on the show and it was the funniest thing in the world to me. He was so deadpan. His jokes were awful. Even when he pandered to the crowd it was met with crickets. And that was the whole point. I loved this character so much that I would sit on my couch howling at this portrayal. My wife was not a fan, but I fully bought in from day one. He used to do digital shorts with Beck Bennett that were bizarre and hilarious. I liked these shorts as much as The Lonely Island stuff. Whenever he would show up in pretty much any sketch I was stoked and his appearance took it up a notch for me as a viewer.  When he did stuff outside of "SNL" I was almost assured to watch. The movie he made, "Brigsby Bear" is funny, sad, heartwarming and so memorable. The fact that Mooney starred and was a writer on this movie made me so happy. This was a role that let him stretch, but also do what he does best, and it is a highly underrated gem. I have so many vivid memories of that movie and they are all good. People need to watch that movie. His one appearance on "Parks and Rec", where he interviews to be Ron's assistant, let him do his awkward comedy at his best. He appeared on the first show from Jessica St Clair and Lennon Parham, another underrated gem, "Best Friends Forever", and while I don't remember much, I do remember Mooney's one episode. He had a solid run on "Hello Ladies", the show from the original "The Office" creator, Stephen Merchant. He did a one off appearance on the "Comedy Bang! Bang!" television show. He reprised his "Hello Ladies" role for the movie. He was very memorable in the movie "Hello, My Name is Doris". And his most recent tv show, "Saturday Morning All Star Hits" sees him playing twin brothers on a 90's sketch show. It is funny, weird and incredibly dark. It is like a much darker version of "Brigsby Bear". I really enjoyed the first season of that show. I hope it comes back.

I feel like Mooney is right up there, as far as sketch stuff goes, with someone like Tim Robinson. Mooney can be much, much darker too. As for the Instagram reels, his stuff is riotous. He goes around interviewing people, all the while he is being very awkward and very bizarre. And I find myself cracking up every time at each new video, of which he puts out daily. Kyle Mooney has an old filter as far as comedy goes, and that works for me so much. I get excited when I see a new video. When he shows up in a movie or on a tv show or on a podcast, that makes it even more of a must see or listen for me.

Kyle Mooney is an underappreciated comedic genius. If you like awkward comedy, he may be the best one doing it out there right now. Give him a shot and I bet you will not be disappointed. Kyle Mooney rocks. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Better Late Than Never on the Gem of Movie "Brigsby Bear"

I finally got around to seeing the movie "Brigsby Bear" yesterday. I have wanted to see this movies since I saw the first trailer for it over a year ago. I do not watch "SNL" anymore, but when I still watched it, the one person I always enjoyed was Kyle Mooney. He appealed to my weird comedy side. He was always doing something unique and different on the show, and 99 percent of it, I loved. My favorite character of his was the 90's standup that he played on "Weekend Update". He was so sad and wanted so much attention and tried so hard.

When I heard that he was writing a movie, and that The Lonely Island, Jorma Taccone, Akiva Schafer and Andy Samberg, and Phil Lord and Chris Miller were producing it, I was intrigued. I assumed it was going to be a bizarre comedy, which it has elements of. But "Brigsby Bear" was way different than I expected. I gathered from the trailer that it may be more of a moving and heartfelt movie, but I still expected mostly comedy. For the most part though, "Brigsby Bear" is a drama. It has so much more drama and kind of bleak moments than I expected. And, I loved every single second of the movie.

First, a short synopsis of the movie. Kyle Mooney plays James. He lives in a bubble of a home with his "folks", played by Mark Hammil, who was a delight, and Jane Adams. James watches a show every night called "Brigsby Bear", and the show teaches him life lessons and is the only thing he has ever seen. James loves it so much, he runs a message board solely based on each episode. His "folks" tell him he can't go outside because of the poisonous air, so he barely leaves his room. One night he decides to go outside and sit on a rooftop, and the police come. We find out that James was abducted 25 years ago as a baby. He gets returned to his real folks, Matt Walsh and Michaela Watkins. He also has a sister, played by Ryan Simpkins. They try their best to acclimate him to the real world. Remember, James has been in a bubble his entire life. James is an outcast. He is very odd. He only likes "Brigsby Bear".

James's father does take him to the movies, to try and give him a normal life, and this starts an idea in his head. He decides that he wants to make a Brigsby movie. Things further progress when his sister takes him to a high school party and he meets some people that want to help him. He also meets a detective, played by Greg Kinnear, who has always had a dream of acting. At first, things are going well. He is making friends and his movie is plugging along. Things take a turn for the worse when he makes a real explosive for his movie and the cops find it and arrest him. He is then sent to a psychiatric ward. He soon breaks out, his family comes to accept his love for Brigsby, and they help him finish the movie. He is welcomed at the theater to a hero's welcome.

I really, really like this movie. Kyle Mooney is the only person that I would have bought playing the role of James. He can pull off the weird loner better than anyone out there right now. He is truly amazing in this movie. I could not take my eyes off screen when he was on it, which was the entire movie. And while it does have moments of comedy, this movie is more about friendship, finding yourself, being accepted, coming to terms with a terrible tragedy and the love of a family. Hell, even though Hammil and Adams characters kidnapped him, he still felt love for them. They did a truly awful thing, but they were never awful to James. They truly did love him. Even after taking a life sentence for what they did, James visits his captors in jail to have him do some voices. He holds no real ill will towards them. Seeing Walsh and Watkins and Simpkins deal with this tragedy and accept for James for who he really is was wonderful. Walsh and Watkins are mainly comic actors, but they do nothing of the comedic variety in this movie. They are parents that lost their kid, got him back and are trying to make up for lost time. Simpkins, the reluctant sister, was great too. She acted like any teenager would, but when push came to shove, she loved, and missed, the brother she never knew she had. Kinnear was excellent as the detective that helped to find James, but also had an acting bug. His turn is so good and he was so good in this role.

I truly loved this story of friendship and family. I would be lying if I didn't say that I teared up a bit near the end. I hope that this means more things will come from Kyle Mooney. He found a very unique way to tell this story. He is the only person who can tell this type of story the way he did. "Brigsby Bear" also proves to me that The Lonely Island and Lord and Miller are only attaching their names to cool and different stuff, but stuff that works, stuff that finds its niche audience. I highly recommend people seek this movie out and watch it. It takes you places you don't expect, and that was great to see. I'm very glad that I saw, and now own, "Brigsby Bear". It is a very well done movie.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He is now inspired to make a movie of the television show that taught him how to be a good and compassionate person. Look out for Ty's "Saved By the Bell" film any day now.

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