Originally published June 4, 2016 on FrontRowCentral.com
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping is without a doubt the dumbest movie you will see all year, and The Lonely Island (Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone) wouldn’t have it any other way. Their film moves like a freight train of modern pop parody destroying every target it sets its sights on, from the offstage antics of Justin Beiber to the obnoxious showmanship of the EDM scene. Popstar is a riot, featuring a dozen equally ridiculous pop songs as well as some choice zingers from the music industry’s finest. And just shy of ninety minutes long, Popstar also knows exactly when enough is enough.
Directed by Schaffer and Taccone, Popstar follows inexplicable music sensation Connor4Real (Samberg) as he embarks on a world tour in support of his new album “ConnQuest”. After ditching his boy band roots with The Style Boyz, Connor’s struggles as a solo artist are starting to catch up to him, as it becomes clear he was by no means the brains of the operation. Even with former bandmate Owen (Taccone) as his DJ, Connor refuses to take any direction but his own. When a number of idiotic choices collide to turn the album into a bomb, Connor finds himself overshadowed by his opening act, a young rapper named Hunter (Chris Redd), and forced to find himself again and you probably know where it goes from here…
The film is a parody of your typical music documentary, not unlike This Is Spinal Tap, and now that I’ve made my contractually obligated Spinal Tap reference, we can move on. Think Justin Beiber: Never Say Never or Katy Perry: Part of Me, where we follow the artist on tour, get some talking head interviews with various people in their orbit, and at some point realize that the whole production is one big advertisement for the artist’s music. (PS: The Popstar soundtrack is available now.) It directly parodies a couple scenes from the Beiber doc, notably home video of the star learning to drum as a baby. In fact, Beiber is pretty much Samberg’s primary target.
There are also shades of Metallica’s Some Kind of Monster, where Connor’s former Style Boyz-mate Lawrence (Schaffer) shows up to air some long-standing grievances. In particular, Lawrence feels betrayed by Connor for not acknowledging his role in writing many of Connor’s early hits. Lawrence never goes full Dave Mustaine with his own Connor-lite career, though his one attempt as a solo singer finds him singing a list of all the stuff he keeps in his truck. It never takes off because, as one artist notes, people have different stuff in their trucks.
The crux of the whole movie is Connor4Real’s utterly terrible pop songs (written by The Lonely Island, natch). The opener has Connor boldly declaring a million ways from Sunday how humble he is, while another tune finds Connor baffled by a lover comparing sex to killing Osama bin Laden. Then there’s the protest song “Equal Rights,” a direct parody of Macklemore’s “Same Love.” Ostensibly a duet with Pink in support of gay marriage, the song turns into Connor repeatedly reminding us how totally not gay he is. In an interview, Ringo Starr points out the fallacy of the whole tune: “He’s writing a song for gay marriage, like it’s not allowed now…”
Speaking of Ringo, the amount of talent they’ve rounded up for this film is truly impressive. Many — like Ringo, Questlove and Carrie Underwood — appear in interviews, expounding on what an awful, amazing talent Connor is. Still others show up as characters in the film, such as Justin Timberlake as Connor’s endlessly put-upon caterer, or Seal, who… actually he’s just playing himself, but he gets by far the best line in the movie.
The comedy comes fast and furious throughout Popstar, though the laughs start to wane after about an hour or so. There is an actual story arc at play here, and some of the more cliched “down and out” moments don’t quite work so well, but it’s great that the film isn’t simply a collection of gags and goofs and dick jokes. The film has plenty of those, but the true magic of Popstar lies in the combined efforts of Samberg, Schaffer and Taccone to create something that genuinely works. And if you think for a minute they’d let this film end without a giant, showstopping Lonely Island number, you’re out of your everloving mind. If you’ve been a fan of these guys since Hot Rod, SNL and beyond, Popstar just might be your new summer jam.
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