‘Popstar’ is simultaneously affectionate and merciless satire

Modern pop music is so ripe for satire it’s a wonder Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping took so long to materialize.

The vapid singles, the fatuous videos and feature-length “documentaries,” the lethal levels of narcissism, a gruesome level of social-media intimacy with fans: An abundance of performers (the Justin Biebers, One Directions and Katy Perrys of the world spring instantly to mind) indulge in such behaviors, all but begging to be taken down a peg or two.

Enter the Lonely Island (Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone), an amiable, absurdist comedy trio more than up to the task of puncturing pop music’s bubble.

The threesome has had plenty of practice illuminating the stupidity pervading pop music — a trilogy of knowing albums, 2009’s Incredibad, 2011’s Turtleneck & Chain and 2013’s The Wack Album, coupled with a string of zeitgeist-surfing digital shorts for Saturday Night Live (perhaps you’ve heard of D— in a Box?), proved the guys capable.

Samberg, Schaffer and Taccone also display an obvious affection for the form, emulating those being ridiculed and even enlisting the targets of jokes to participate in self-mockery. Much of what makes the Lonely Island’s pop parodies so screamingly funny is how they aren’t vastly different from the insipid songs flooding the Top 40 at any given moment.

So it goes that Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping looks and feels very much like the recent spate of theatrically released infomercials masquerading as documentaries: Justin Bieber’s Never Say Never; One Direction’s This Is Us or Katy Perry’s Part of Me.

The key difference between those films and Popstar, of course, is that the hysterical setpieces of the former — watching One Direction wreak havoc on arena staff as a way to kill time, or seeing Justin Bieber earnestly performing gooey pop songs on a street corner — are treated as the ludicrous mythmaking they truly are in Popstar.

Directed by Schaffer and Taccone, and written by and starring all three members of the Lonely Island, Popstar follows Conner4Real (Samberg) from his young, scrappy days in rap group Style Boyz through his solo career, at its apex as the film opens, on the eve of the release of his latest record, Connquest.

Populating the film with A-list talking heads — Questlove, Nas, Ringo Starr, 50 Cent and Carrie Underwood, among others, make cameos as themselves — Popstar spends a brisk 86 minutes following a familiar trajectory (Conner4Real must fall from a great height before rising once more), but the riotous journey is of more interest than the final destination.

Crammed full of sly jokes and pitch-perfect song parodies (not to mention a staggering roster of surprise cameos), Popstar careens along, delivering far less abstract laughs than the trio’s previous cinematic venture, 2007’s Hot Rod (although since that film did grace the internet with the “Cool beans!” meme, perhaps the film wasn’t a total misfire).

The film, while a very funny vivisection of pop and hip-hop inanity, also functions as a sweet tribute to the value of being creative with longtime friends, a meta-commentary on the Lonely Island by the group members themselves.

The cast — which includes Tim Meadows as Conner4Real’s long-suffering manager, Harry; Imogen Poots as paramour Ashley Wednesday; and Chris Redd as the hair-trigger rapper Hunter the Hungry — is locked onto the same silly wavelength as Samberg, Schaffer and Taccone, all of whom deliver finely calibrated performances that never tip over into full-blown cartoons (Taccone, in particular, takes what would seem to be a thankless role and invests it with real humanity).

A film like Popstar would not have nearly the impact it does if the songs weren’t as finely honed as the rest of the jokes, and on that front, the Lonely Island again delivers, nimbly spoofing everything from pop (I’m So Humble; Incredible Thoughts) to hip-hop (Donkey Roll; 2 Banditos; Hunter the Hungry Is Gonna Eat) to painfully earnest “message” music (Equal Rights; Legalize It).

Like a hit song you can’t stop humming, the screamingly funny Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping shows some love for pop music, even as it shows no mercy.

This story was originally published June 1, 2016 at 2:03 PM with the headline "‘Popstar’ is simultaneously affectionate and merciless satire."