Works okay as a parody

Rating: 6/10 (15 February 2017)

"Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping" is an American movie from last year in the English language. At slightly over 80 minutes, it is a relatively short film and it was made by Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone. These three also play core characters in here, especially Golden Globe winner Samberg. It is a mix of comedy and music, but really mostly comedy as it makes me a bit sad that what we hear in here is considered music. At least it is just a spoof of what people consider pop music in the 21st century, which is equally depressing though. Anyway, this is the story of an ambitious singer who splits up with his band and tries to become famous on his own, so basically something that happened many times, but rarely worked out as well as it did for Justin Timberlake and Beyoncé for example. The former also has a brief cameo in here like many many others as well, people from the music industry like Usher, Ringo Starr or Mariah Carey who basically play themselves in here.
I think this SNL trio came up overall with an entertaining film here. The title already gives away that this is basically spoofing the careers of "real" musicians in the pop music industry these days and from this perspective, the outcome is acceptable. However, the consequence is as well that Samberg (and the rest) can go outrageously over the top and justify it all by being satire. I am not sure how much I like the idea, but it is certainly a smart one as this way they made sure we do not recognize Samberg's mediocre (actually almost non-existing) talent when it comes to serious acting. The film lives through funny scenes and comments and really all the spoof elements. Actress Imogen Poots has one of the best lines in her very brief appearance here. So yeah, expect smart writing, but not really good acting here. Poots is one of very few occasions of actually pretty talented performers. All in all, it's an okay little movie, but nothing really that should be on anybody's top of the year list. Thumbs up.