Satirical Look at Our Celebrity Obsessed Culture

Rating: 5/10 (7 June 2016)

The mockumentary style of filmmaking can be a divisive one. You have to balance the tone well enough for viewers to believe in the story you're trying to tell while also giving enough laughs to please the fans of the genre. Even if Popstar didn't produce as many big laughs as I would have hoped, I can appreciate the attempt to change the structure to typical filmmaking.
Starring the trio from The Lonely Island and pretty much every other comedian and/or celebrity, Popstar has a tendency to rely too heavily on surprise cameos and over-the-top gags. That's not to say I didn't think the main cast had their moments, they did. But the biggest laughs came from surprise appearances from people I didn't know were in the film.
The overabundance of celebrities make me curious as to why virtually no one showed up to the theatre to see the film. It's also not like they didn't properly market the film. The trailers show exactly what you're going to get; a raunchy comedy told with in the mockumentary style about a dysfunctional lead singer who struggles to regain fame, with plenty of cameos mixed in. Perhaps there just isn't the audience for this type of story.
The other detraction of Popstar is that it's blatantly predictable. We all know how these films about music stars/bands go, there's a breakup, downfall, and usually a rise. So when the film reaches for a little bit of dramatic weight via one of these clichés, you see it coming a mile away.
With all this said, there's plenty of entertainment to be had here. It's a quick watch and the film definitely earns its R rating in a good way, so I can see the appeal here for comedy fans or anyone who has watched SNL in the last 10 years or so. But I think there just needed to be a few more big laughs under a more original story.
+Surprise cameos
+Lonely Island chemistry
-Sometimes story takes second to cameos
-Predictable
5.8/10