Pop Star: Never Stop Never Stopping

Pop Star: Never Stop Never Stopping is the brain child of the men behind The Lonely Island musical group.  The skits Lonely Island are typically very raunchy but are also often hilarious.  I went into this film with some form of measured excitement because their music as a whole is really catchy and stays with you long after the song has finished.  Pop Star focuses on a group called the Style Boyz which I consider a rip off of *NSYNC meets the Beastie Boys.  One member of the group is a guy named Conner 4 Real and he is trying to breakout and become a star.  There’s just one problem, much like Justin Beiber everyone appears to be yes men and no one wants to tell Connor the truth about his music or the fame he associates with the moderate success he has.

Pop Star is in many ways a remarkable movie.  It does nothing to change the egotistical frontman breaks away to be famous plotline.  All of the story beats are the same and remain completely unchanged.  The only thing that is different about this film is that the egotistical idiot stays an idiot.  He’s just nicer idiot which is appreciated which is better than someone being a conceded jerk.

I will freely admit that going into this movie I had little to no expectations of what it could do or even who the audience for this film was for.  On the surface,  Pop Star: Never Stop Never Stopping feels like a PG-13 comedy in the same vein of the film it is parodying Justin Beiber’s Never Say Never.  The reality is this is an adult comedic version of something teenage girls fawn over and the results of this effort are only hilarious because you know what’s coming from one scene to the next and the hilarious ways this film makes fun of each and every casual moment caused raucous laughter in my theater because every joke is played to its natural extreme which causes the film to go from so bad it’s good territory into amazing crazy chaos that makes me cry from laughter territory.

Andy Samberg is fantastic as Connor 4 Real in this mockumentary.  He’s brash but childish and understanding but intense.  I love the odd contrast between his personality as it both allows audiences to hate the character as well as be deeply endeared to the character because he is so incredibly gullible and dumb.  I love the idea that Connor is such a bad musician that he needs as many special effects and stunts to make audiences not only love him but also his music.

Music does play a key role in the film.  The songs used here only compliment the stupidity of the main character with extremely foul language while also being a colorful commentary on the youth culture as a whole.  The thing about music in this film in particular is that while I expected funny gags and social commentary what I found most surprising is how much I loved each and every song performed by Andy Samberg and crew.

As a whole, Pop Star: Never Stop Never Stopping should be a laughable mess but it is instead a mildly compelling story about an artist’s slow maturity as a person while keeping together the messy celebrity filled life he is wrapped in.  This is a film people should see as it is hilarious and surprisingly moving despite being a story that’s been told before.  I’m keeping it real when I say this film doesn’t need to stop playing in theaters anytime soon.