May have been too smart for demographic

Rating: 7/10 (19 October 2016)

To paraphrase the old cliché, pop music in the digital age is never about about the music, man. "Popstar" rips into an admirably broad set of pop music conventions and events including, hysterically, U2's force-feeding of its album to Apple users, awareness - raising songs about popular topics as a way to boost cred and sales and, most notably, the pervasiveness of music-by-committee. As the spot- on named "Connor4real" says: "it takes a village to make me look dope." As that quote suggests the writing lampoons modern hipster vernacular as well as it does modern entertainment dynamics. Beyond the opposite of tone deaf writing and subject matter, the film delivers more Easter eggs than the famed Bunny. This may partially help explain why it was only lukewarmly received. There's so much insider baseball, somewhat obscure references, meaningful cameos and stuntcasting it may have just overwhelmed the 12 to 24 demo that largely came to see it. Also this reliance on such of-the-moment comedy fodder may mean the movie won't age or travel well. In short, best to see it soon before everyone forgets the Bieber / Anne Frank incident (remember that? well, Justin was...).