A while back I watched a few episodes of HBO’s popular comedy Silicon Valley. I’ll tell you something about that show: It’s too real to be funny. It wants to be a blazing satire, but I’ve lived in Silicon Valley long enough to know that in many ways, it’s just true. It’s a strange world indeed when a full-bore caricature of startup life looks more like an honest snapshot. When an orange-hued huckster is the actual, real presidential nominee. When we accept the ridiculous as simply routine.
It should really come as no surprise, then, that Lonely Island’s would-be takedown of the vapid, talentless, Snapchat-drunk music biz falls a shade short of the kill as well. It’s really not the movie’s fault–it’s ours.
After all, it’s tough to exaggerate pop-star culture to the point of successful ridicule when the pop stars do it already, daily, themselves. We’re all used to it. I bet you could show Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping to a theatre full of tweenies and they’d think it’s a straight-as-rails Herzog documentary. And I’m not even against vapid pop. Just kidding: someone fetch me an artisanal cold-press deconstructed coffee in a vintage beaker and a some suspenders, stat. Just kidding again: I listen to enough high-energy Euro-pop that gumballs come out of my stereo. That’s the honest to donuts truth.
Another truth is that Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping is an upbeat and frequently hilarious movie, and you’ll have a good time seeing it. Andy Samberg and Jorma Taccone (getting a tad long in the tooth–has it really been eleven years since Lazy Sunday?) star as Connor4Real and his right hand man Owen. Along with Akiva Schaffer, they’re also a former boy band (The Style Boyz). But Conner4Real ditched the group a while back for a successful solo career, and Owen tagged along as his DJ. There’s not much story to speak of–Conner’s new album doesn’t do so well, so soul searching ensues–but that’s not really the point, anyway.
With a rack full of Lonely Island comedy songs and a strong supporting cast of managers, talent agents, girlfriends, and plenty of high-wattage celebs doing cameos, Popstar whacks all the right moles. It’s got bright colors, pulsing lights, and does a ten-for-ten imitation of every mainstream pop doc in recent years. (And yes, I’ve seen the Bieber movie, the Glee movie, and the Katy Perry movie.) Some of the songs (“Bin Laden” in particular) are catchy and uproariously funny, as are a smattering of other lines–not to mention Owen’s fabulous DJ helmet.
Sure, Popstar isn’t as smart or consistently funny as, say, Get Him to the Greek. It’s funny in the way most Lonely Island videos are–plenty of free-association wordplay, sex jokes, and Michael Bolton. But Taccone and Schaffer’s direction lacks the satirical teeth to really rip the music biz. In all, Samberg et al. seem just a little too taken with this pop star glamour themselves to really savage it.
With a sharper edge and whole-hog commitment, this could’ve been a truly great movie. What it is instead is a fun, light, and eminently watchable romp with banging music, regular laughs, and plenty of stars. And is that so bad? No, it’s not. Not at all.
Haus Verdict: More mimicry than satire, thanks to a music business that really IS as vapid as this; but still packs a lot of laughs and at least one truly great song. Hey, it’s summer. See something fun.
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping opens everywhere tomorrow, June 3.
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