During his nine-season tenure at Saturday Night Live, actor Kyle Mooney often exuded a goofy and amiable charm in his sketch roles. So, it stands to reason that his directorial debut would possess those same qualities. 

To say the disaster comedy Y2K doesn’t take itself too seriously would be quite the understatement, which will be a bug for some and a feature for others. As its title implies, millennials are squarely in the film’s key demographic. 

Even if other age groups understand the barrage of late ’90s references Mooney and co-writer Evan Winter throw into their screenplay, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll appreciate them. But if you’re looking for a throwback that plays like a blend of 1998 movies Small Soldiers and Can’t Hardly Wait, then Y2K is here to dial up the nostalgic fun.

Set on the final day of 1999, the movie follows teen buddies Eli (Jaeden Martell) and Danny (Julian Dennison) as they try to find a high school party they can get into at the last minute. After getting bullied by stoner skaters Ash (Lachlan Watson) and Farkas (Eduardo Franco) outside a convenience store, the pair run into the smart and popular Laura (Rachel Zegler) inside, and she lets them know about a party at the house of Soccer Chris (The Kid Laroi). 

Eli’s attempt that evening to turn his crush on Laura into something more is thwarted by The Millennium Bug, which causes all manner of technology from appliances to computers to become violently sentient. While most of the kids at the party die at the hands of the now-conscious electronics, Eli and Laura form a group with several others to venture out and try to unplug the superintelligence trying to end humanity.

In terms of alternate history pitches, “What if Y2K really happened?” is a tantalizing one, but not exactly one that Mooney and his team look to explore too deeply. To a certain degree, it seems to parody the kind of tech paranoia popular in mid-90s sci-fi thrillers like The Net and Virtuosity in the way it ups the stakes to outlandish proportions. 

But it’s all backdrop for what’s primarily one of those teen comedies about how going to one cool kid’s party can change the trajectory of your life. The characters are all easy enough to hang out with for 90 minutes, but I wish Mooney and Winter had fleshed them out a bit more; Laura is the most developed one here, and even she basically becomes Angelina Jolie’s character from Hackers by the third act. 

Compared to another period coming-of-age story like Dìdi from this year, the writing here is laughably thin.

Mooney may not have the most sophisticated film on his hands, but he certainly packs it to the brim with as many turn-of-the-century touchstones as possible. 

There are needle drops from pop rock acts like Edwin McCain and Semisonic, with plenty of other zeitgeist zingers invoking all manner of pop culture figures from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time to Billy Blanks. And should you still carry a torch for stylings of nu metal act Limp Bizkit, Y2K should immediately leap to the top of your must-watch list. 

There’s a running bit of clever commentary courtesy of a rap enthusiast character played by Daniel Zolghadri, who chastised his friends Ash and Farkas for forgoing thoughtful hip-hop for what he deems as “corporate music.” He freestyles as Prophets of Intelligence and gets on his high horse about posers selling out, but when it comes down to it, his taste and talent isn’t as “elevated” as he thinks.

There really isn’t much tension in Y2K as to whether or not the ragtag band of high schoolers will somehow overcome the evil robots, though there are some unexpected casualties along the way. 

The violence bestowed upon the teens is as impractical as it is ridiculous, with blenders lunging at crotches and Barbie Jeeps attaching themselves with power tools. 

Midway through the movie, Laura pulls up a video that conveniently explains the supercomputer’s evil plot in lengthy detail with visual aids. Does it actually make sense that machines heading toward technological singularity would divulge their plan as carelessly as a James Bond villain? Of course not. 

Y2K is a diverting enough initial outing from Mooney as a director, who I hope will keep honing his storytelling chops.

New movies coming this weekend

• Playing only in theaters is Kraven the Hunter, a Sony Spider-Man Universe entry starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Ariana DeBose, following a primeval assassin who starts down a path of vengeance with brutal consequences.
• Also playing in theaters is The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, an animated fantasy starring Brian Cox and Gaia Wise, set almost 200 years before Peter Jackson’s trilogy, when the king of Rohan and his family defend their kingdom against a powerful army.
• Streaming on Netflix is Carry-On, an action thriller starring Taron Egerton and Jason Bateman, following a mysterious traveler who blackmails a young TSA officer to let a dangerous package slip through security and onto a Christmas Day flight.