From the team that brought you some of the best SNL sketches of the past 10 years comes a parody of the current state of ridiculous pop musicians, hilariously titled Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping. Directed by The Lonely Island’s and Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone and written by the entire trio, which includes star Andy Samberg, this elongated Lonely Island digital short is exactly what you are hoping it to be, both fun and funny, dumb and dumber, a mindless good time at the movies and what may possibly be the millennials version of This is Spinal Tap! (though it’ll never get that cult status).
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping is a musical mockumentary following megastar Conner4Rea (Samberg)l, a former member of the popular rap trio, The Style Boyz, who has found Justin Bieber-like fame. After a nasty split with one of The Style Boyz, Lawrence (Schaffer), Connor has been rolling with a large pack, retaining his best friend and DJ/Style Boyz alum Owen (Taccone) to help him out. When Connor’s new album flops, his life and career starts to tailspin out of control, doing everything he can to make it work except the one thing that’s guaranteed to solve his problems, reunite The Style Boyz.
Featuring a huge array of musical cameos that’ll garner plenty of laughs, this Lonely Island charged mockumentary is chock full of over-the-top humor that somehow manages to generate laughs consistently throughout the film. On paper, these are the types of jokes that should tire an audience by the end, but somehow the boys manage to find a great balance between parody and non-original originality as they give us a spoofed insider-look at the music industry.
From a story perspective, the film is predictable and thin, but from a comedy perspective it hits mostly all right notes. Guiding us through the ridiculous ups and downs of a fame and power obsessed musician who cares only about himself. From a 20+ person entourage to a Brittney-spears level public meltdown, there are too many golden opportunities for the comedians to capitalize on. Most of the songs aren’t as iconic as their past digital shorts, but the climactic song at the end comes the closest along with Finest Girl (Bin Laden song). Though, I’ll be honest, the funniest part of the film has nothing to do with the music but instead related to the TMZ parody show, CMZ, which features none of the main stars. It’s incredibly dumb but I, along with the entire audience, was laughing so hard because of it.
Overall, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping was much better than I thought it would be. Not that there’s much competition, but I’d have to go so far as to say it might be one of the best comedies of 2016 thus far (doesn’t come close to Deadpool). The Lonely Island trio have made a really fun movie that accomplishes the difficult task of generating laughs for an entire film all while riding on a plot that’s just as superficial as the subjects it’s parodying.
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