[rating=9.00]
It seems like it’d be almost too easy for the minds behind The Lonely Island (Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer) to craft an easy 85-minute sendup of fame through a Justin Bieber parable. It’s the kind of impression the trailers give, as Samberg’s Connor4Real character surrounds himself with yes-men and sycophants, strolling through his life as a meta-commentary on fame — both in general and in the digital age.
Now that they’re ready to unleash their feature film debut, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, it’s clear there are a few of those moments scattered throughout, and while all these moments work with good-or-better comedic payoff, there’s a number of layers to the humor here. Including those that reach far outside the film’s loose mockumentary format, bypassing what would be a reliable punchline and opting into the outer rim of non sequiturs and outright absurdism.
The biggest challenge for a group known for sketch comedy, (outside of Samberg’s rising star from breakout SNL performer to leading role on the Fox sitcom Brooklyn 99), is being able to weave enough of a comprehensive story throughout so it feels like a movie. It takes another step inside it’s own meta nature by making the story loosely parallel Samberg’s success outside of The Lonely Island on a whole
In Popstar, they were the Style Boyz, an influential hip-hop trio that Connor4Real eventually feels he outgrows, and ends up striking out as a solo artist. He keeps his partner, Kid Contact, aka Owen (Taccone) as his DJ, but has a falling out with Lawrence (Schaffer) over Connor taking credit for his work during an acceptance speech on national television.
With that as the backstory, Popstar does end up playing out like a series of sketches. Each are individually fantastic, though a few end rather abruptly, which is consistent with The Lonely Island’s style, both comedically and musically. Along the way, nearly every well-known comedian today shows up, including heavy hitters Sarah Silverman as their publicist, Paula, and Tim Meadows as Connor’s longtime manager, Harry.
While the story is structured around Connor’s poorly received follow-up album, Connquest, it was hard not to notice that none of the new songs quite got in your head like “On A Boat” or “YOLO” did when showing up as SNL Digital Shorts. That’s not to say that “I’m So Humble” and “Finest Girl” weren’t pop-parody gems — The Lonely Island’s strongest selling point is their slick song production — but even the big closing number didn’t resonate that strongly, despite how hilarious it was.
Still, despite these very slight missteps, Popstar more than achieves what it sets out to do, creating a skewering account of fame through the eyes of the oblivious, complete with Mariah Carey’s musings about her being humble, and easily the funniest RZA moment captured on film so far. There’s even a TMZ sendup, CMZ, that occasionally pops up to offer talking-head commentary on Connor’s life that somehow manages to satirize its source material while pushing the scene itself into one of comedy’s abstract plains.
Like The Lonely Island, the film is confident and well-crafted, with an acute self-awareness and a masterful approach to comedy that rarely gives you a chance to catch your breath between laughs.
Popstar: Never Stop Stopping is now playing in theaters everywhere.
