Faux doc 'Popstar' a stretched 'SNL' skit with lewd laughs
Andy Samberg's faux documentary comedy "Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping" turns out to be pretty much what we'd expect from its commercial trailers: a lewd, frequently hilarious six-minute "Saturday Night Live" segment s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d to an ultra-tenuous 86-minute "Spinal Tap" wannabe.
"Popstar" - written by the Lonely Island crew (Samberg and his co-directors/co-stars Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone) - gleefully skewers the vapid, self-centered universe of superstar rapper Conner4Real, a strained, arrested adolescent hybrid of Vanilla Ice and Derek Zoolander.
"Ever since I was born," the entertainer tells us, "I was dope!" And he left out the "a."
Conner4Real first achieves musical success with the teen pop-rap trio Style Boyz, along with his childhood buddies Lawrence (Schaffer) and Owen (Taccone).
Believing his own publicity, the incredibly insensitive, dumb-as-a-light-dimmer Conner4Real (C4R) strikes out on a solo career, taking Owen along as a glorified DJ. Lawrence leaves in disgust to become a farmer resembling a settler from one of those DirectTV commercials.
Success appears to be more of a challenge as a solo act, C4R discovers. His second album "CONNquest" (featuring the satirically titled single "I'm So Humble") doesn't do as well as expected.
The critics hate it. But C4R revels in a single good review from the Onion. (Remember the light-dimmer simile?)
In a panic, his loyal manager (Tim Meadows, putting considerably more comic meat on the bones of this character) proposes C4R get a popular opening act, such as Hunter the Hungry (Chris Redd), who instantly begins to take over the show.
C4R's personal life also proves to be more complicated than he expects, especially in a showcase scene when howling wolves start eating the guests at an elaborate, orchestrated marriage proposal to his publicity-hungry girlfriend Ashley Wednesday (Imogen Poots).
"Popstar" moves along in fits and starts, propped up by some zippy editing and a never-ending cavalcade of cameo appearances from celebrities such as Mariah Carey, Carrie Underwood, Usher, Simon Cowell, Adam Levine, DJ Khaled, Michael Bolton - even ex-Beatle Ringo Starr!
Sarah Silverman pops in as C4R's publicist. Evanston's Joan Cusack plays his druggie mom. Ex-"SNL" stars Kevin Nealon, Bill Hader and Will Arnett also get sandwiched into this overstuffed cast.
"Popstar" clearly knows the behind-the-scenes terrain of this manufactured world of glitz and glamour. It greatly enjoys ridiculing the vacuous "journalism" of TMZ.
You'd never guess producer Judd Apatow had anything to do with this connect-the-skits production, until Samberg's coddled codfish character turns gooey, recognizing the important things in life, such as friends and a pet turtle that doesn't throw up.
Yet, the most crucial element goes missing in "Popstar," the inadvertently nasty nature of being a totally unempathetic egomaniac.
Samberg's bland sweetness simply can't carry off a character as sandpapery and cluelessly cold as C4R.
Perhaps he should take a few lessons from fearlessly edgy "SNL" alum Adam Sandler.
And I can't believe I just wrote that sentence.
“Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping”
★ ★ ½
Starring: Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, Sarah Silverman, Akiva Schaffer, Maya Rudolph, Chris Redd, Tim Meadows, Joan Cusack
Directed by: Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone
Other: A Universal Pictures release. Rated R for drug use, language, nudity, sexual situations. 86 minutes