‘Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping’
Rating: R for “some graphic nudity, language throughout, sexual content and drug use.” Running time: 86 minutes.
A quick survey of the pop music landscape: Kanye West, in the midst of rolling out an album that frequently changed titles and engaging in a Twitter feud with a rapper named Wiz, claimed he was $53 million in debt but could still “buy furs and houses for my family.” A scandal known as “DoughnutGate” ensnarled Ariana Grande; her apology began “I am EXTREMELY proud to be an American.” Fans of Justin Bieber continue to go by the name “Beliebers.”
In such a state, where reality seems to be engaged in an arms race of absurdity, the bar for parody is higher than a Mariah Carey vocal exercise.
“Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping,” the Lonely Island’s mockumentary styled after self-aggrandizing docs like Bieber’s “Never Say Never,” doesn’t often reach the kind of pitch that will shatter glass. It comes closest when its “Behind the Music” format dissolves and, before you know it, there’s (the film’s producer) Judd Apatow’s penis (definitely not in a box) smeared against a limousine window or Will Arnett’s recurring, cackling, beverage-wielding impression of TMZ’s Harvey Levin.
Yet on display in “Popstar” – which actually boasts only a handful of Bieber jabs – is the full panoply of pop music’s glorious, ego-warped idiocy, from the demented bubble of an entourage to pseudo poses of humility by the famous. It’s done with the familiar skewering wit (and respectable knack for a tune) of Lonely Island trio Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, the makers of the beloved “Saturday Night Live” Digital Shorts.