‘Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass’ Review: David Wain Delivers One of His Funniest Films Ever

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- Sony Pictures Classics will release David Wain's "Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass" in theaters on Friday, July 10, following its premiere at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival
- Zoey Deutch stars as Gail, a Kansas hairstylist who flies to Los Angeles after her fiancé actually sleeps with Jennifer Aniston, determined to "even the score" by sleeping with Jon Hamm
- Miles Gutierrez-Riley plays Otto, Gail's gay best friend who joins her on the cross-city quest, which the reviewer describes as mirroring "The Wizard of Oz"
- John Slattery plays a fictional, post-"Mad Men" version of himself — self-proclaimed "Slat Man" — desperate to win back Jon Hamm's favor, in what the reviewer calls a "hysterically self-deprecating performance"
- Jon Hamm appears as himself alongside celebrity cameos from Weird Al Yankovic and "Shark Tank" investors, with the reviewer noting the film "is best watched with a face sheet"
- The film is positioned as Wain's spiritual follow-up to "They Came Together" (2014), extending his technique of treating cities as characters — this time to Los Angeles
- The review marks 25 years since "Wet Hot American Summer" premiered at Sundance, calling the Wain-Marino collaboration "still at the absolute top of their game"
Why it matters: Sony Pictures Classics picking up the film for a wide July 10 theatrical release gives the cult-comedy duo of David Wain and Ken Marino their biggest platform since "They Came Together" (2014). For a filmmaker built on absurdist non sequiturs, a Sundance-to-major-distributor pipeline signals sustained audience appetite 25 years after "Wet Hot American Summer" first debuted at Park City.




