Ever since I was born, I was dope.
In Popstar, the Lonely Island boys get together for a mockumentary about superstar Connor4Real, played with brio by Andy Samberg. This documentary really takes on everything about the modern music world and just nails it perfectly. The jokes are brilliant and they come at a pace of about two or three a minute at times. It’s a movie that often had me just sitting there with my mouth hanging open; this is a reaction I occasionally have to comedy where I find it to be so brilliant that I’m kind of too gobsmacked to even laugh. I did laugh a lot, but some of this stuff is so perfect that I was just blown away by it. The cast is spectacular. Jorma Taccone is wonderful as Connor’s second fiddle and Akiva Schaffer is hilarious as an ex-bandmate of Connor’s that turned to farming after the band broke up. Tim Meadows is wonderful as the manager. And a special mention for Chris Redd who is perfect as Hunter the Hungry, a completely unhinged up and coming rapper. The cameos are myriad; I won’t spoil them and I would urge you not to look at the cast list anywhere before seeing the movie. I was surprised by a lot of them and I was really glad about that. I’m loathe to even mention certain bits that I loved, but I just can’t say anything at all about this movie and fail to mention the CMZ bits, which absolutely had me on the floor every time they came up. And the music is nothing short of phenomenal. These songs nail the tics of popular music to perfection and yet also blaze their own paths into some completely weird other territory. Again, no spoiling the bits but Equal Rights is a dead on spoof of music video posturing and “socially conscious” pop music. And Finest Girl is just . . . I just don’t even know how to explain the genius. At this point, it’s hard to imagine anything ever touching This is Spinal Tap when it comes to music satires. But Popstar is breathing that same rarified air, if I can be frank. It’s not just as close as anyone’s ever come, it’s closer than I ever expected anyone to come. Popstar isn’t operating constantly on the level of genius and Spinal Tap really was, but there are scattered scenes here and there in Popstar that . . . my God, I’m going to say it. There are scenes in Popstar that are AS GOOD as parts of Spinal Tap. I know. Right? I never thought I’d say that about anything. But Popstar is everything it needs to be and more. It’s dead-on, pitch-perfect and non-stop hilarity. It didn’t do well at the box-office, but I expect it to have a huge second life. This is the kind of movie that fails initially and then gains cult status. In thirty years, this movie might be as big as Airplane or Holy Grail. Get in on the ground floor; watch it now. 4 stars.
tl;dr – mockumentary about pop music stardom is dead-onand frantically, constantly hilarious; comedy genius and destined for cult status, it’s nothing short of a masterpiece. 4 stars.