Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping is a
This is Spinal
Tap-like mockumentary that ribs not only popstars like Justin
Bieber and their gargantuan egos, but also the culture of modern
celebrity in general. It's made by the mostly music-based comedy trio
known as Lonely Island, which consists of Andy Samberg (Hotel
Transylvania 2, Cloudy with a Chance of
Meatballs 2), Jorma Taccone (The
LEGO Movie)
and Akiva Schaffer, and whose claim to fame came mostly for a series
of hilarious SNL digital short films that would frequently go viral
("D**k in a Box", "Mother Lover"). Their shtick involved spoofing pop
culture, and the music industry most often, writing completely absurd
ditties in content, but with all of the production value and crossover
appeal of real pop music in form.
Samberg stars as Conner, the
most popular member of a Beastie Boys-esque hit rap trio known as the
Style Boyz, know known under his stage name, Conner4Real. He retained
the services of the other Style Boyz member, Owen (Taccone), who produced the
music, as his current DJ (just for show -- he plays the music set from
his old iPod), even though it's pretty much all for show these days,
as ultra-narcissistic Conner has chosen to go with a whole slate of
popular producers (over a 100!) for his sophomore solo album, "ConnQuest",
which ends up being a critical disaster. This puts a damper on his
upcoming world tour, which relies on Conner bringing in an
up-and-comer for an opening act to help fill out half-empty arenas,
the wildly erratic Hunter the Hungry (Redd), who ends up stealing the show
most of the time. Meanwhile, the Style Boy, Lawrence (Schaffer), that wrote most
of their lyrics without much credit and has bitterly chosen to leave
the game altogether, chooses farm life in rural Colorado and avoiding
the spotlight, unlike Conner, doesn't want to do anything unless it is
watched by his millions of followers in social media.
Not only
does Popstar send up the music industry as a whole, but the
plot also serves as a spoof on films about music in general, covering
the usual story of a musician who came from humble roots only to hit
it big and lose touch of who he once was, eventually having to down a
heaping helping of humility to find his way back to what once made him
happy. Meanwhile, the film also sends up real life, as Samberg, like
Conner, would go on to superstardom and celebrity, while the two main
talents behind the beats and rhymes of Lonely Island, Jorma and Akiva,
have been relegated mostly to the background of their projects as
they've become successful.
At 86 minutes, it's both short as a
movie, but long for one of their concept videos. As such, it doesn't
quite play as well as a whole movie, but the sum of its parts is makes
it certainly worthwhile as a collection of short concept videos
wrapped around a central story through-line. The barrage of cameo
appearances will likely keep viewers minds engaged (no surprise that
Judd Apatow (Trainwreck) is a co-producer, given his penchant for equating celeb
appearances as humor), as well as the bizarrely conceived, slapdash
nature of the visual gags, while the persistent music interludes
breath life into the film just when things look like they might be
turning stale. Such songs as "Equal Rights", where Conner takes a
stand to support gay marriage, not because it is heartfelt so much as
it will draw media attention, while also insisting throughout that
he's not gay, are hilarious concepts that skewer the fragility of the
sexuality of the young straight male being afraid of helping out LGBT
causes for fear they will be assumed as a member of that community.
They also flesh out Conner's character as a man without any sort of
self-awareness of his own narcissism, and the film establishes his
bubble only re-asserts this tendency, as he's surrounded by 'yes men'
in his entoruage, and rubs elbows with other pop stars who suffer from
the same egocentric tendencies, wanting to be popular more so than
being good at what they do. Another standout song, "F--- Bin Laden",
has Conner4Real bragging about how he powered through a particular
sexual escapade and did what the U.S. government did to Osama.
It's in the songs that Popstar finds its best footing in
humor, mostly because those are among the few times in which the film
encroaches into territory that deliberately goes for laughs. The
send-ups of pop stars, celebrity-based TV shows, and the lifestyles of
the rich and famous, while exaggerated, isn't really so easily
distinguishable from outrageous events that have happened in real life
to be great jokes in and of themselves.
As with the
kindred-spirit celebrity-model satire, Zoolander, Popstar is
often scattershot in its approach and can be quite raunchy in its
delivery, such that it will likely have a limited audience of mostly
younger viewers who are savvy enough with today's pop culture to
understand all of the music industry and internet references, and
don't mind the barrage of vulgar jokes that pepper the screenplay.
Many of the jokes are obvious, but enough are clever and incisive to
keep the film buoyant, even if this is a 'flavor burst' kind of a
comedic film, where a new song or character gets introduced to keep
the momentum from sagging from the inherent redundancy of jokes about
characters that only have one or two facets to define their
personalities. In many ways, it's like an album from a
real pop star: mostly filler, but there are the handful of hits that
justify the purchase.
Qwipster's rating
:
©2016 Vince Leo
