The Most influential popstar in the world gets put front and center, in the mockumentary titled “Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping”. Headlined by musical digital-shorts superstars Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, collectively known as The Lonely Island, the comedy is a parody of music documentaries. Conner4Real (Samberg), a world-famous recording artist with a massive fanbase and 32 people on his personal payroll, faces a crisis of popularity after his sophomore album flops, leaving his fans, associates and rivals all clueless as to how to pick up the pieces when he’s no longer the dopest star of all. The documentary follows Conner as he undergoes the ups and downs of the pop star life, while interviewing some of the biggest names in music. Conner is forced to do whatever he can to stay in the spotlight, short of reuniting with his old boy band The Style Boyz. “Popstar” is directed by Schaffer and Taccone, and is rated R for graphic nudity and sexual content, adult language, and drug use.
Where “Popstar” is at its smartest and most entertaining is when the film’s script turns the camera around and offers a reflective look into our own society and how we as a world view music. There certainly is the message of how dumbed down the music world has become, mostly within its dependancy on technology that takes away a little too much of the creative process. What’s so genius about this mockumentary is that it plays for each joke at face value, but there’s more of a hidden irony beyond each gab at the music industry, and how each artist is served up like a flavor of the week at an ice cream shop. The film kind of hints that songs anymore are about throwing a bunch of random lyrics together, with no real rhyme or reason to their grouping. It’s hidden gems like these why this film will warrant great replay value, as you are bound to miss some of the jokes upon your first viewing. I laughed very much at this film, and if you aren’t a fan of Andy Samberg or The Lonely Island humor, then you are going to despise everything about this movie. As for us fans, this is the film that we as a whole have been waiting for. It pushes the creative envelope even further that two of the band’s members serve as the very directors for this project. Taccone and Schaffer really know how to squeeze the most out of this subject, and for the first two acts of the movie, the film strongly succeeds as one of the very best comedies midway through 2016.
Where the film starts to fall apart, but doesn’t quite reach dangerous levels is in the third act, where the film sort of reverts back to being just another movie. The very feel of conventional screenplay begins to rear its head, as well as show some of the creative cracks within a script that feels pushed for material even for 81 minutes. Some of the jokes go on unusually long during the last twenty minutes of the movie, and the film struggles to get back that comedic charisma that got us off and running during the first hour of the movie. I mentioned that the film starts to feel conventional, and that is because I lost suspension of disbelief that a camera would be rolling through some of these scenes of character struggle for Samberg’s character. I know that judging reality in a Lonely Island movie is ridiculous, but if we are going to judge B-grade horror films that leave the camera on for a little too long, we too can judge the believability in a movie as silly as “Popstar”. This act of the film is definitely the weakness in the script, but that’s only because the first two acts are so strong for revealing the hypocracies of the music industry, and that is where I wish the film’s direction would’ve remained faithful.
As for performances, the Lonely Island trio all bring something to the table when it comes to this spoof group that they play in. Samberg is of course the frontman and showman for the group, and as an entertainer Samberg has always felt authentic in his screen presence. For the longest time, people compared him to Adam Sandler, but I think Samberg has better awareness out of what his audience demands from him, as he certainly never halts at being the butt of every joke. Taccone offers that shoulder to Samberg’s character, being one of his oldest friends. What I love so much about Jorma’s character is that he is the lone witness to Conner’s decrease into the puppet that the music industry and the boatload of riches has influenced him. No joke gets its legs without a committed straight-man, and Taccone’s facials reflect the very reactions of the audience watching this in the theater. I was a little worried early on in the film that Akiva Schaffer’s character would be a little lost in the shuffle as the usual quiet man of the group, but he definitely makes his presence felt throughout the film. Akiva’s character goes through a rift with Samberg, so it’s nice for the film to narratively go somewhere else than the madness of Conner’s everyday life. We all wonder about where the members of past boybands go once the limelight has worn thin, and Akiva’s Lawrence really gives those supporting acts a voice of their own. The trio certainly don’t skimp on the music as well, as the film releases some addictive toe-tapping gems that are sure to stay in your head for days after viewing. My personal favorite is “Finest Girl”, a ballad about Samberg meeting the girl of his dreams, but her having terror-filled fantasies about a certain American terrorist.
One thing that a film like this does brilliantly as opposed to a film like “Zoolander 2” is that it uses an endless array of cameos in the way they are supposed to be used. For that film, the A-list celebrities just kind of felt like weird characters who were there to play opposite of who they are, but in “Popstar” these celebrities are playing themselves, so of course the only thing asked of them is to be interviewed in front of the mock-camera. This film is certainly second to none in surprise appearances, and I won’t ruin anything except to say that some of the Lonely Island’s best musical guests make worthy appearances.
“Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping” is among the very best with Rock N Roll mockumentaries. It’s funny, thought-provoking, and filled with plenty of scenes that will get us through the next drought of time without the Lonely Island. The film is an accurate depiction of a music industry that is ever-changing, and the duo of Taccone and Schaffer never falter to break the fourth wall with articulate social commentary.