By Robert Scucci
| Published 22 seconds ago
When a band gets too famous for its own good, it’s only a matter of time before tensions rise and the entire operation falls apart, which is broken down beautifully in 2016’s Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping. If you’re familiar with The Lonely Island, you already know what kind of humor you’re signing up for, since the film is written by and starring Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer. Functioning as a Behind the Music–style mockumentary, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping brutally lampoons the music industry by showing just how quickly the pop culture media machine chews up and spits out its artists the second their popularity starts to wane, all while delivering consistently side-splitting results.
Like most musical mockumentaries, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping follows a fairly predictable “this happened, then this happened, then this happened” story structure, but that hardly matters here. You want to see everything that happens because whenever something happens, a PR disaster is usually right behind it. This slice-of-life delivery never wears out its welcome because The Lonely Island, or “The Style Boyz” in this case, know exactly how to command the crowd, the press, and the viewing audience watching the whole thing unravel in real time.
Boy Band Breakup And Its Messy Aftermath
Centering on Connor Friel’s (Andy Samberg) solo project, Connor4Real, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping gives us a crash course on the past collaboration responsible for his meteoric rise to fame. Back in the day, Connor was an integral part of the pop trio The Style Boyz alongside his childhood friends Lawrence “Kid Brain” Dunn (Akiva Schaffer) and Owen “Kid Contact” Bouchard (Jorma Taccone), performing under the name “Kid Connor” when things were far simpler.
When Connor’s infamous “Catchphrase Verse,” co-written by Lawrence, launches him into superstardom, Lawrence leaves the group after receiving no credit for his contributions. This effectively leaves Owen behind as well, relegating him to a de facto DJ role for Connor’s new solo venture.
Owen’s creative input is brushed aside in favor of Connor writing by committee, reducing him to pressing “play” on an iPod and serving as a hype man while Connor remains the face of the entire operation. After a series of increasingly poor business decisions courtesy of their manager Harry Duggins (Tim Meadows), Connor slowly becomes a public punchline when his sophomore album, Connquest, gets torn apart by critics.
The real nail in the coffin for Connor’s career comes in the form of an endorsement deal with home appliance company Aquaspin. Much like the U2 incident where iPhone users had an album forced onto their devices against their will, Connor4Real’s release is installed into dishwashers and smart fridges everywhere, producing exactly the kind of backlash you’d expect from a marketing stunt that wildly overestimates its audience’s patience while simultaneously blacking out the power grid.
As Connor’s career steadily flushes itself down the toilet, he’s no longer able to headline his own tour, forcing Harry to bring on an opening act in the form of up-and-coming rapper Hunter the Hungry (Chris Redd), whose popularity quickly eclipses Connor’s. Despite leaning into increasingly unhinged gimmicks in a desperate attempt to stay relevant, disaster after disaster follows, culminating in a wolf attack at his televised wedding to Ashley (Imogen Poots), who he’s only been dating for six months.
Caught between his past life with his original band and a new life that’s doing him no favors, Connor is forced to confront his own ego with help from his publicist Paula (Sarah Silverman) before his career lands in the gutter with no chance of recovery.
Standard Mockumentary Fare Done Exceedingly Well
If Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping sounds like another riff on Walk Hard or This Is Spinal Tap, that’s because it absolutely is. But it earns its keep by being completely shameless in its execution. The concert footage and musical setpieces boast surprisingly high production values, which help sell just how far Connor4Real falls from grace while refusing to listen to the people closest to him.
The celebrity cameos, including but not limited to 50 Cent, Miley Cyrus, Adam Levine, Questlove, Pharrell Williams, T.I., A$AP Rocky, and Michael Bolton, do a lot of heavy lifting. The B-roll interview segments in particular sell the Behind the Music angle far better than they have any right to, grounding the chaos in something that feels just real enough to be a VH1 special.
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping also leans hard into its behind-the-scenes absurdity, especially once you learn that the pop tabloids are run by Will Arnett, Eric André, Mike Birbiglia, and Chelsea Perretti. Their entire job consists of laughing, offering half-hearted commentary, and drinking from multiple metal water bottles at the same time, because that’s all corporate culture requires these days.
In short, everything you see here has been done before, but the satire remains sharp because the film fully commits to its own ridiculous spectacle. It knows exactly when to linger on the absurdity and when to cut away before the joke wears thin.
A box office bomb turned cult classic, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping is one of those movies you owe it to yourself to watch if you’re willing to embrace just how ridiculous it gets. You shouldn’t expect anything less from The Lonely Island. If you’re in the mood for sensation, spectacle, and a media-friendly fall from grace, you can stream it right now on Prime Video.
