Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass Review: Gags Galore

Is Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass worth watching?

Yes, with reservations. Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass is a scrappy, good-natured comedy that throws jokes at the screen at a furious rate, and enough of them land to make it one of the livelier studio-style comedies of the summer. Zoey Deutch is a terrific, game lead, and David Wain’s absurdist instincts keep things moving. The catch is the hit rate: for every inspired bit there is one that feels recycled, and the story is little more than a clothesline for sketches.

What is Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass about?

Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass follows a small-town hairdresser in Kansas, played by Zoey Deutch, who is engaged to her devoted high-school sweetheart, Tom. Like many couples, they have a joking agreement: each gets a free pass with one celebrity. Gail never expected Tom to actually use his.

When he does, she is blindsided. Reeling, she impulsively tags along with her friend Otto on a trip to Los Angeles, where a psychic persuades her that the only way to even the score is to cash in a pass of her own. Her chosen target is Jon Hamm, who plays himself, and the rest of the film follows Gail’s increasingly ridiculous campaign to get close to him.

David Wain directs this English-language American comedy, which premiered at Sundance in 2026 and runs a quick 93 minutes. The cast also includes Michael Cassidy, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Ben Wang, John Slattery, Ken Marino and Sabrina Impacciatore.

Zoey Deutch keeps the chaos grounded

Deutch is the reason the film works as well as it does. She plays Gail as plucky rather than pitiful: a woman who treats a humiliating betrayal as a practical problem to be solved, with a mixture of wounded pride and small-town can-do spirit. Her timing is sharp, and she commits completely to even the silliest situations, which gives the audience someone to root for amid the absurdity.

Jon Hamm, sending up his own image as the object of Gail’s quest, is a good sport about it. The supporting cast is packed with comic performers who know exactly how to play Wain’s brand of deadpan nonsense, and part of the fun is spotting familiar faces as they pop up for a scene or two. The fish-out-of-water angle, a Kansas hairdresser navigating Hollywood’s strange ecosystem, also gives the film a handy source of culture-clash jokes.

Wain’s joke machine runs at full speed

Anyone who knows Wain’s work, from Wet Hot American Summer to Role Models and They Came Together, will recognise the style: gags stacked on gags, literal-minded wordplay, sudden detours into the surreal and characters who state the obvious with total sincerity. It is an approach that prizes quantity, and in the best stretches the rhythm is exhilarating, with jokes arriving faster than an audience can laugh at them.

The Los Angeles setting gives Wain a broad target. Celebrity culture, spiritual hucksters and the entertainment industry’s self-regard all get affectionate kicks, and the film’s willingness to mock its own famous guests keeps it from feeling smug. Stay through the credits, too; the film has a little more to say after the story ends.

Where the laughs thin out

The problem with a joke machine is that the misses are as visible as the hits. Some bits feel like rehashes of older spoof comedies, and a few running gags are stretched past their punchlines. The story, meanwhile, is so thin that the film has little momentum beyond its next set piece; the emotional thread between Gail and Tom is sketched rather than developed, so the romance carries less weight than it should. The visual style is also flat and functional, closer to television than cinema.

Who should watch Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass?

It suits fans of David Wain’s comedies, admirers of Zoey Deutch, and anyone in the mood for silly, fast-paced laughs rather than a polished romantic comedy. At 93 minutes it is an easy watch, ideally with friends. Expect frequent sexual humour, crude jokes and strong language, so it is for adults.

For something different after it:

• Anora, a far darker, more ambitious comedy about a young woman thrown into a chaotic world of wealth and privilege.
• The General, a reminder of how precise and inventive a gag-driven comedy can be.

The verdict

Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass is a loose, likeable joke parade that gets more right than wrong, powered by Zoey Deutch’s winning performance and a cast of skilled comic ringers. It is too uneven to rank among Wain’s best, but for a quick, silly night of laughs it more than earns its place.