Akiva Schaffer

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping

First Hit:  This very funny musical parody gives a glimpse of how young pop stars (like the Beastie Boys or One Direction) might respond to immediate fame.

The Style Boyz are three lifelong friends who are musically talented separately but together they are great. Their first album sells like hotcakes and they even have their own dance; “The Donkey Roll.”

Enough people single out Conner (Andy Samberg), the lead singer, to do something on his own which he decides to do leaving his band mates Owen (Jorma Taccone) and Lawrence (Akiva Schaffer) to fend for themselves.

Owen joins Connor’s touring support team as a DJ and eventually gets masked during performances. Lawrence is put out to pasture, literally, by becoming a farmer and also dong wood carvings. Conner’s first album is a success and he becomes a big star.

The film uses real music stars to validate Conner’s success by giving them the opportunity to sing their praises of Conner’s work. They even have Justin Timberlake as Conner’s chef. There is also a parody of the television program TMZ with CMZ and how they cover famous artists.

Conner sets out to do his second album and when it drops, it fails miserably and Conner scrambles to put his career back together. This film is about putting his career back together. The songs that truly stand out are:  I’m Not Gay and F#^$ Bin Laden.

Samberg is excellent as Conner the leader of Style Boyz and as Conner4Real, the single act. Taccone and Schaffer are wonderful as his bandmates. They show a level of reverence and their own strength in appropriate levels. Tim Meadows as their manager Harry was wonderful. Samberg, Taccone, and Schaffer wrote a wonderful inventive funny script. Schaffer and Taccone did a great job of directing by creating wonderfully funny musical scenes.

Overall:  It was a good laugh and enjoyable.

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