Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping - Best Comedy of 2016

Certificate – 15

Directed by – Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone

Starring – Andy Samberg; Jorma Taccone; Akiva Schaffer; Tim Meadows; Sarah Silverman; James Buckley; Imogen Poots; Maya Rudolph and Joan Cusack

Running Time – 87 minutes (1 hour 27 minutes)

★★★★½

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In the space of two weeks, we’ve had the return of David Brent as we follow his journey to finding fame and now Conner4real makes his big screen debut this weekend in Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping.

Popstar is a mockumentary/comedy going behind the scenes of singer/rapper Conner4real (Samberg) as he faces a crisis of popularity after his second album flops, leaving his fans, sycophants and rivals all wondering what to do when he’s no longer the dopest star of all.

I LOVED THIS FILM! This is my favourite comedy of 2016! I saw this on Monday and I’m still laughing about scenes from this film. I laughed from the opening credits.

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If you’re a fan of The Lonely Island, you need to get yourself down to the cinema this weekend and then buy the soundtrack because the music in this is phenomenal. It’s funny and really smart and I have huge respect for Samberg and co for coming up with the lyrics.

Speaking of Samberg, he’s the star of this film from beginning to end as he carries this film with is personality and charisma and by using Conner4real he’s on point with how musicians especially the younger one see themselves. 

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I generally believe if he gets that one film he could be breakout comedy film star and I think he could be a decent Guy Gardner in the Green Lantern Corps film (if Warner Bros goes with three Green Lanterns).  

It’s not Samberg, but everyone seems to have a chance to shine from Taccone’s character calling himself a “DJ” but he’s just a dude with an iPod, Meadows talking about his musical past and then Rudolph and how to pronouns her name Deborah.

There’s also a shit-tonne of cameos taking the piss out of themselves, which is always great to see and you seem them also taking the piss out of the celebrity culture from TMZ and Imogen Poots’ character.

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The film does have some negatives, it did feel like a long Saturday Night Live sketch or a lot of sketches put together and I’ll totally understand if you didn’t like it from that point of view and the story is 100% basic and predictable.

What made me love it so much was the comedy used, it wasn’t too filthy, Samberg’s performance and the length that hour and 27 minutes just fly by.

Verdict

If you’re a fan of The Lonely Island you’ll enjoy this film. It’s a great comedy with brilliant performances.  

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