MEDIOCREMOVIE.CLUB
  • Reviews
  • Side Pieces
  • Shane of Thrones
  • Podcast
  • About
  • Archives
  • Game of Thrones Fantasy

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping

9/12/2016

0 Comments

 

B+

Directed by Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer

Starring Andy Samberg, Taccone, and Schaffer

Review by Jon Kissel
Picture

​It's continuously frustrating how some great movies become commercial flops while hacky, recycled movies rake it in.  During a summer that saw Angry Birds make it past $100 million, the superb pop satire Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping made less than a measly tenth of that haul.  For whatever reason, films featuring the Lonely Island trio (Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer) in front of or behind the camera all seem to struggle or fail to make their budget back, but thankfully, executives keep giving them money.  If not for their generosity, the world might never have known Connor4Real (Samberg) and his ouevre of pitch perfect pieces, parodying both the Top 40 playlist and the artists themselves.
Drawing inspiration from This Is Spinal Tap, Popstar interviews the constellation of people hanging around Connor in the days leading up to and following the release of his new album, Connquest.  The film also is a semi-biopic of Connor, with a good portion of its short runtime dedicated to his pre-Connor4Real life, when he was one third of a successful boy band with his childhood friends.  Connor broke up the band, The Style Boyz, to go solo, though he employs former member Owen (Taccone) as his deeply unnecessary DJ.  Out of disappointment and humiliation, final member and lyricist Lawrence (Schaffer) has gone into seclusion and become a farmer.  Seeing Connor surrounded by flunkies and staff who never tell him the truth, and depressed by the critical and commercial failure of Connquest, Owen attempts to get The Style Boyz back together and reconnect with his old friends.
​
This viewer is not a music person, such that I could talk for long periods of time about movies or TV but have little to say about music, but Popstar is satirizing something recognizable from headlines alone.  It takes real life instances and then furthers their absurdity.  Justin Bieber, the obvious inspiration for Connor, says Anne Frank would've been a fan of his if she had lived, so Connor goes to the actual Anne Frank house and uses her toilet as a goof.  The hyper-masculinity of man-children who get their every need taken care of combines with the self-inflated, surface-level social awareness that accompanies so many artists, giving birth to a musical plea for gay marriage in which Connor has to constantly remind the viewer that he is not actually gay.  All three Lonely Islanders are credited as writers, and they've surely been around many of the people they're poking fun at, including Justin Timberlake, who cameos as Connor's chef.  It's a homage both piercing and sadly recognizable, even for the less-than casual consumer.

A Lonely Island written film should include original songs, something their otherwise solid Hot Rod was missing.  Popstar is not missing that ingredient.  Aside from the aforementioned ode to gay panic, there's a tribute to weird Spanish lisps in 'Ibitha,' the braggadocios "I'm So Humble,' and the catchy Da Vinci diss track, 'Mona Lisa,' among many others.  Directed by Taccone and Schaffer, the songs are presented either in concert or with videos, all a reasonable facsimile to the real thing, despite lyrics that call Mona Lisa the original garbage pail kid.  Since Connor and The Style Boyz are both, bafflingly, treated as musical pioneers and titans of the art form, real pioneers like Nas and Ringo Starr are pulled in for talking heads that praise them as such, which is promptly followed by a song solely dedicated to spewing out potential catchphrases.  This format might be spoofing VH1-style programming, or it might be The Lonely Island writing themselves a script that calls for Simon Cowell to praise the music of their fake group, which was written and composed by the real them.  Either way, the dissonance is hilarious.

For the central trio, this feels like an earnest depiction of The Lonely Islanders' friendship amidst wolf attacks and full frontal male nudity.   Sandberg functions as the good-looking front man, Taccone as the earnest truth teller, and Schaffer as the introspective weirdo, perhaps not their actual dynamic, but an easily believable one in Popstar.  Surrounding them are a wealth of funny comedians, actors, and SNL alums.  Maya Rudolph's appliance executive and tour sponsor makes the biggest impression, giving her character the toadying quality of a salesman and the dismissiveness of someone who does not respect her customer.  The only flubs in the cast are those actors wasted in a TMZ spoof, otherwise talented people like Will Arnett and Chelsea Paretti.  These bits just aren't as funny and seem disconnected from the movie, either because TMZ is such low-hanging, repulsive fruit, or because Amy Schumer's show did this exact same bit one month earlier.

​Popstar hits that Walk Hard sweet spot, a constantly funny musical that also contains listenable music.  Between this, Hot Rod, and MacGruber, Popstar is their best work yet, infectious in its comedy and cutting in its satire of overproduced, overmarketed pop nonsense.  If only the public would take notice of some of the most talented comedic filmmakers working today, maybe their movies wouldn't grace theaters so rarely.  B+
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Side Pieces

    Random projects from the MMC Universe. 

    Categories

    All
    Action
    Adventure
    Author - Bryan
    Author - Drew
    Author - Jon
    Author - Phil
    Author - Sean
    Best Of 2016
    Best Of 2017
    Best Of 2018
    Best Of 2019
    Best Of 2020
    Best Of 2021
    Best Of 2022
    Best Of The Decade
    Classics
    Comedy
    Crime
    Documentary
    Drama
    Ebertfest
    Game Of Thrones
    Historical
    Horror
    Musical
    Romance
    Sci Fi
    Thriller
    TV
    Western

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    June 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015

    RSS Feed