Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping
Directed by Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone
- comedy
- music
The story
When his new album fails to sell records, pop/rap superstar Conner4real goes into a major tailspin and watches his celebrity high life begin to collapse. He'll try anything to bounce back, anything except reuniting with his old rap group The Style Boyz.
What it’s like
Handheld documentary camerawork and sit-down talking-head interviews give this mockumentary a loose, fly-on-the-wall texture, while the concert sequences flood the frame with saturated stage lighting, glossy digital color and confetti-bright crowds. Its sound is the real pleasure: polished, over-produced pop and rap tracks that parody the genre's slickest conventions, with a constant stream of deadpan one-liners and music-video pastiche. The vibe is cheerful and ridiculous, a bright, goofy send-up of celebrity excess that works best on a lazy weekend, during a background-friendly stretch, or with friends who enjoy shared laughs. Pacing is brisk and episodic, built on quick cuts, cameo-heavy bits and escalating absurdity. The emotional arc follows a vain, self-absorbed star whose career wobbles and who grudgingly reckons with old loyalties, played for laughs rather than sincerity. Coarse humor, profanity, sexual innuendo and crude gags run throughout, and there is cartoonish slapstick and mild comic violence, but nothing dark or graphic. It suits people who want a silly, music-soaked comedy that rewards affection for pop culture and its absurdities.
More films like Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping
Closest in mood, pacing and theme. Tell us why you loved Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping and we’ll explain which ones fit you.
