REVIEW: Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping

Courtesy of Universal

I was nervous in the moments before the theater lights went down and Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping began. The Lonely Island – comprised of Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer – helped revitalize Saturday Night Live in the mid-2000s with their digital shorts, most of them three-minute bursts of profane brilliance. But how would that translate into an 86-minute movie?

SNL doesn’t exactly have a great track record with its cinematic influences. The Blues Brothers, Wayne’s World and Tommy Boy are exceptions, not the norm. Plus, Samberg’s go-to sketch persona – a combination of white-boy rapper and idiot manchild – was already starting to wear thin when he left the show back in 2012. I was skeptical that it would still hold up four years later.

I shouldn’t have underestimated the creative team. A parody of the concert documentary genre (e.g. Justin Bieber: Never Say Never and Katy Perry: Part of Me) is the perfect vehicle for The Lonely Island to showcase both their comedic and musical skills, and they brought their A-game. It’s like Samberg, Taccone and Schaffer (who all co-wrote the screenplay, with Taccone and Schaffer directing) read my mind and made a movie specifically designed to destroy my doubts.

In fact, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping is the best comedy of 2016 so far. It’s This Is Spinal Tap for millennials, but in a way that’s much less irritating than that description would suggest. The entire premise of the film, aside from a desire to mercilessly skewer modern pop music, is to agree that it’s time for The Lonely Island to grow up. (While still being hilariously crude, of course. Let’s not get too carried away.)

After a quick, clever remix of the Universal theme, the movie opens with a few minutes of world building that quickly set my mind at ease. The screenplay dumps a ton of exposition on the audience, but keeps it entertaining and funny.

We meet Conner4Real (Samberg), who used to be in a boy band called the Style Boyz with best friends Owen and Lawrence (Taccone and Schaffer, of course) before his massive ego drove them apart. Now he’s a giant solo artist with an entourage full of yes-men. Owen is still with him, but now serves as his DJ (meaning he presses play on an iPod). Lawrence got fed up with the business and moved to the Midwest to be a farmer.

However, when Conner’s sophomore album flops, he suffers an existential crisis that sends him flaming out of the business while his biggest rival, Hunter (the astoundingly funny Chris Redd), rises to take his place. Owen, ever the faithful friend, knows things will get better if he can just get Conner and Lawrence to stop fighting, so he concocts a plan to “Parent Trap” his buddies into forgiving each other.

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping could’ve been a complete disaster, but it deftly avoids the landmines that often make high-profile comedies unbearable to sit through (looking at you, Zoolander movies). It juggles a dimwitted protagonist (who, thanks to Samberg’s sharp performance, is actually more self-aware than he initially appears), a constant barrage of celebrity cameos, an ambitious satire of a ridiculous industry and various styles of humor.

Any single one of those could’ve derailed the laughs if handled poorly. Instead, The Lonely Island combines them all to make a film so continually hilarious that I’m already planning to see it multiple times. I know I missed a ton of jokes because I was laughing so hard.

Plus, the trio understands that if Conner4Real is supposed to be a massive pop star, he should be singing good pop songs. As was the case with The Lonely Island’s most memorable digital shorts, their songs are genuinely well-crafted in addition to being comical. For instance, jump on YouTube and listen to “I’m So Humble,” the song that kicks off the film – it could be playing on Top 40 radio right now.

When Conner’s ego explodes and he decides to write all the songs for his disastrous second album, they should be legitimately terrible – and they are. They’re still catchy, but hilariously awful. That attention to detail makes all the difference in the world.

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping also breaks new ground in what the MPAA allows R-rated comedies to get away with. I would never dream of ruining the joke, but there’s a scene involving Conner’s groupies placing various body parts against the window of his limo that made my jaw drop. I’m not exaggerating for effect – that’s literally what happened.

Obviously, the film’s not for kids or the easily offended. But those who don’t mind their humor on the raunchy side should love it. Adjust your expectations and weekend plans accordingly.

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping is rated R for some graphic nudity, language throughout, sexual content and drug use.

Grade: A