Reliably Funny

Rating: 8/10 (14 June 2016)

One of the things I loved to do when I was a kid was hook up my old camcorder to the TV and face them towards each other. The effect would create a swirl of constantly moving frames that would eat into each other like reflections on either side of a fun house mirror. Popstar is kind of like doing that. It points the camera at fictional pop superstar Conner (Samberg) but it might as well be pointing it directly at the music industry, creating a post- modernist spiral of superficiality that is at once hilarious and distressing.
Taking cues from modern music vanity projects (though from Justin Bieber: Never Say Never (2011) especially), Popstar follows music icon Conner as he prepares for a world tour and awaits the reception of his newest album. Conner was formerly a member of The Style Boyz a Beastie Boys inspired trio co-developed by Lawrence "Kid Brain" Dunn (Schaffer) and Owen "Kid Contact" Bouchard. These days he's dubbed himself Conner4Real and replaced the embittered Lawrence with a constant stream of social media updates. Owen is still around though he's been relegated to the status of iPod shuffling DJ on Conner's world tour.
Popstar is arguably one of the most savagely entertaining music industry satire to come out in the last few years. While constantly focused on the low-hanging fruit of celebrity personal branding, product-placement, reality TV inspired banality and faux savoir- faire worldliness, audiences can't help but respond with heaps of constant laughter. The laughter becomes louder when The Lonely Island crew cuts deep into Hollywood's insincere sanctimony and egoism such as when Conner releases "Same Love" inspired "Equal Rights" which reiterates Conner heterosexuality one too many times.
The film is littered with an obscene amount of musical celebrity cameos ranging from Danger Mouse, and RZA to Michael Bolton and Weird Al Yankovic many of which play themselves and give sit down commentary on how their music was inspired by Conner's "superior" abilities. This in itself is a funny premise but the movie takes it to the nth degree allowing celebrities to savagely mock themselves and each other with the absurdity of A$AP Rocky hawking school lunchables. Let's face it, any movie that begins with holographic versions of Adam Levine dry humping himself while Conner sings "I'm so humble" in the background is clearly setting a mocking tone.
That said there are some jokes that just don't work, the most egregious of which is Popstar's parody of TMZ, CMZ. The set-piece hopes to coax laughter out of sycophantic shrieking and Will Arnett's need to always have a straw in his mouth. This along with tour sponsorship being handled by washing machine manufacturer Aquaspin are more bizarre than funny.
Yet with the sheer amount of visual humor, clever dialogue, goofy- comic setups and a richly layered meta-text, you can't help but enjoy a movie so crudely and gleefully nutty (in more ways than one). The musical interludes are boat loads of fun; Lonely Island's "Finest Girl (Bin Laden Song)" being the real showstopper. Andy Sandberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone are clearly at the top of their game and with any luck, still have a few more witty tunes to churn out in the future.