Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping is not always successful, but it has enough solid laughs that I am recommending it.  Besides, it's nice to have an R-rated comedy that tries to be funny throughout, when so many of them seem to turn sentimental and sappy during the final half these days.  Saturday Night Live veteran Andy Samberg doesn't exactly break any new ground with this documentary-style spoof of the music industry,but that doesn't make it any less fun to watch.

With the help of a lot of his comic friends, and cameos by probably about 60% of the current music industry, Samberg tells the story and plays the role of Connor4Real, a conceited pop music superstar who rose to fame as part of a raunchy boy band group called the Style Boyz, which was comprised of him and his two best friends from childhood, Owen and Lawrence (played by Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer, who both directed, and co-wrote the film with Samberg).  But when Connor started getting all the media attention in the group, a rift was created between the three friends.  Connor went on to a successful solo career, with Owen sticking by his side, acting as his DJ. (His main job is to push a button on an iPod, and start up the music during concerts.) As for Lawrence, he went into seclusion, and is now a farmer.  Connor's debut solo album went on to be a huge smash, and his ego has only inflated.

We now watch a documentary film team as they follow Connor in his day-to-day life during the build up to his sophomore solo album, CONNquest.  The launch is a disaster, with terrible reviews (one reviewer gives it a negative 4 out of 10, while Rolling Stone simply gives it the "poop" emoji instead of its standard 1-4 star rating system), slow sales, and a corporate tie in with a household appliance manufacturer that winds up pissing a lot of people off.  With Connor about to kick off his world tour to promote the album, his manager (Tim Meadows) and publicist (Sarah Silverman) have to think of ways to keep his career afloat, especially when his tour fails to sell out the arenas he's playing.  This includes signing up an opening act with a rapper named Hunter (Chris Redd), who may or may not be insane, and staging an elaborate televised proposal to his girlfriend (Imogen Poots), which involves recording artist Seal, and a pack of wolves that are apparently not big fans of Seal's music.

Popstar is not exactly what I would call biting satire of the music industry.  A lot of the shots it takes is at the obvious inflated egos of certain singers, and the ridiculous hype that comes about surrounding the projects they work on.  And yet, I did laugh quite a lot.  Samberg and his co-stars (many of which are past Saturday Night Live performers, naturally) play this absurd material the right way - They take it seriously, and pretend it's not supposed to be stupid.  Nobody is playing for laughs, or trying to show up their fellow comedic actors, which does help the documentary vibe the film is trying to create.  There are also some good laughs at the expense of real celebrities in the music industry, my favorite being a revelation about Taylor Swift, and why she is unable to perform at a music award ceremony, allowing Connor to go on in her place.

Even if not all the jokes hit and there are some kind of long stretches where the laughs fall flat, I still admired the effort.  This is a small comedy that I imagine will be seen as a cult hit within a couple years.  Samberg obviously has to play an obnoxious and egotistical buffoon when he's performing as Connor, which could have easily turned the audience off if he made the character too annoying.  But, he finds the right balance here.  We don't exactly like Connor, but then, we're not supposed to.  We're supposed to be laughing at him, and we do, because Samberg gives him enough naive innocence.  The movie also looks like a real documentary, which always helps obviously.  So many "found footage" films, or movies attempting to create the look of a spontaneous documentary look too slick or professional, but this movie never falls into that trap.

I do have to say, however, the movie will probably work better at home.  It will most likely play out better on TV, where I'm sure it will have a long life on the Comedy Channel in the future.  Popstar will never be mistaken for a great comedy, but it is a lot of fun.

See the movie times in your area or buy the DVD at Amazon.com!

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