This one’s easy enough to decide whether to watch or not: Are you a fan of Andy Samberg and comedy troupe The Lonely Island? If so, you’ll love this mockumentary, which features their usual blend of clever one-liners, deliberate stupidity, goofy charm, and bro bonding. Samberg plays Conner4Real, a Bieber-esque celebrity singer with a staggering lack of self-awareness, intelligence, or talent.
The Lonely Island crew (Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone get directing credits and all three are listed as writers) don’t score many points for degree of difficulty here, as they aim their sights on easy targets like musical documentaries, egomaniacal popstars, and the writhing corpse of the music industry. But while Popstar can’t match Hot Rod’s outrageous spark, that doesn’t stop it from being consistently funny (and often hilarious) as it packs in about 5 jokes per minute over the course of its brisk run time. The songs are hit-or-miss, but you have to give it to Samberg and crew: they have a real knack for managing to elicit a genuine emotional reaction even when deliberately employing the most hackneyed of clichés.
arthousegrindhouse.wordpress.com 