Review of Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016) by Brett H — 14 Jun 2016

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping is a hilarious mockumentary from the Lonely Island crew following a fictional popstar named Conner4Real, whose fame is rapidly beginning to fade away and the satire of the music industry and digs they make at current celebrities is both bold and side-splittingly funny! Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer have crafted one of the funniest, and most outrageous comedies I've seen in a while and with Judd Apatow on-board as a producer, they went for a much-needed R-rating and take advantage of that whole-heartedly! The cast is enormous and filled with tons of cameos from singers The Lonely Island have collaborated with, SNL alums, and just random pop celebrities talking in interviews which helps sell the mockumentary style and convince you this singer actually exists.

The film employs a style similar to This Is Spinal Tap, though obviously not as brilliant, where we follow the highs and lows of this popstar and the format really helps sell the jokes which come fast and furious and there's no way I caught them all through my laughter.

It's obviously a predictable story and you know all of the story beats but the commitment to the material from the cast is more-than-admirable and there is a scene involving a limo and Judd Apatow's dedication to his craft that had me in stitches.

The gags work, the cameos are endless, and the satire is dead-on, setting its sights on recent events such as U2's album leak onto all of our iTunes accounts and of course, pretty much everything Justin Bieber has done (the title being an obvious parody of his own musical documentary).

It may not be remembered as a comedy classic as many of the jokes and references are of this time, but the comedic slaughter that the music industry takes is incredibly hilarious today and I look forward to a possible sequel involving Conner4Real and the rest of the Style Boyz!