Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping [Blu-ray]

Director: Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone Akiva Schaffer

Overview

This mockumentary satire of the music business and modern celebrity centers on self-absorbed pop rapper Conner4Real (Andy Samberg). Once a member of a popular rap trio called the Style Boyz, Conner is now a solo artist about to drop his second album. Unfortunately, the release gets abysmal reviews, and his career begins to melt down when his attempts at rehabing his image lead to such disasters as a global blackout and a proposal to his girlfriend interrupted by a wolf attack. Eventually, Conner considers burying the hatchet with former colleagues Owen (Jorma Taccone) and Lawrence (Akiva Schaffer) in order to reunite the Style Boyz. Tim Meadows, Maya Rudolph, Sarah Silverman, and Imogen Poots co-star. Samberg, Taccone, and Schaffer co-wrote the screenplay, while Taccone and Schaffer shared directing duties.

Product Details

Release Date:	11/12/2019
UPC:	0826663197785
Original Release:	2016
Rating:	R
Source:	Shout Factory
Region Code:	A
Language:	English
Time:	1:27:00
Sales rank:	3,447

Special Features

Audio Commentary with Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone; Deleted scenes; Music videos; Gag reel; Interview outtakes; Bonus footage

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Andy Samberg	Conner
Jorma Taccone	Owen
Akiva Schaffer	Lawrence,Upset Homeowner
Sarah Silverman	Paula
Tim Meadows	Harry
Maya Rudolph	Deborah
Joan Cusack	Tilly
Imogen Poots	Ashley
Chris Redd	Hunter
Edgar Blackmon	Eddie
James Buckley	Sponge
Evan Fine	10-vuotias Conner
Maxwell Jenkins	10-vuotias Owen,10-Year Old Owen
Elliott Smith	10-vuotias Lawrence
Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson	Himself
Carrie Underwood	Herself
Nas	Himself
Usher	Himself
50 Cent	Himself
Nicholas Azarian	Quirky Kid
Ringo Starr	Himself
Simon Cowell	Himself
Akon	Himself
Mariah Carey	Herself
Adam Levine	Himself
Ashley Moore	Sarah (Personal Assistant)
Danny Strong	Perspective Manipulator
Pink	Herself
Big Boy	Himself
DJ Khaled	Himself
A$AP Rocky	Himself
Kevin Nealon	Gary Sikes (Label Photographer)
Mario Lopez	Himself
James Hegarty	Angry Appliance Fan
Walker William Borba	Angry Vlogger
Will Arnett	Main CMZ Reporter
Chelsea Peretti	Brunette CMZ Reporter
Mike Birbiglia	Blonde CMZ Reporter
Eric Andre	Dreadlocked CMZ Reporter
Bill Hader	Zippy
Joanna Newsom	Steam Punk Doctor
Jonah Goldstein	Steam Punk Doctor
Andre Hyland	Lame Ass Dude
Mike Winfield	Hunter's DJ/Hypeman
Danger Mouse	Himself
The Rza	Himself
Chester Tam	Club DJ
Tip "T.I." Harris	Himself
Pharrell Williams	Himself
Seal	Himself
Paul Scheer	Wolf Handler
Adrien Finkel	Angry Fan
Christine Krumme	Angry Fan
Ben Newell	Angry Fan
Joy Lanceta	Angry Fan
Jimmy Fallon	Himself
Win Butler	Himself
Regine Chassagne	Herself
Steve Higgins	Himself
Derek Mears	Limo Driver
Alison Hermine Rich	Crazy Fan
Martin Sheen	Himself
Will Forte	Bagpipe Player
Marielle Heller	Documentary Crew Member
Snoop Dogg	Himself
Ithamar Enriquez	Stage Manager
Liz Cackowski	Poppies Producer
"Weird Al" Yankovic	Hammerleg Lead Singer
Michael Bolton	Himself
Damon Bryson	The Roots
Kirk Douglas	The Roots
Mark Kelley	The Roots
Ian Hendrickson-Smith	The Roots
Black Thought	The Roots
Frank Walker	The Roots
James Poyser	The Roots
Tariq 'Black Thought' Trotter	The Roots
Matthew Compton	Composer

Technical Credits

Akiva Schaffer

Jorma Taccone

Andy Samberg

Judd Apatow	Producer
Rodney Rothman	Producer
Morgan Sackett	Executive Producer
Davi Aquino	Sound Effects
Eric Harwood	Sound Effects
Akiva Schaffer	Director,Screenwriter,Producer
Jorma Taccone	Director,Screenwriter,Producer
Andy Samberg	Screenwriter,Producer
Allison Jones	Casting

Editorial Reviews

It probably looks too easy on paper: a mockumentary making fun of the delusional nature of modern celebrities? Where the main character is heavily modeled on Justin Bieber, no less? Doesn't that just seem too simple, too obvious? Leave it to comedy troupe the Lonely Island (Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone) to both take this premise seriously and use it as a jumping-off point for the kind of so-stupid-it's-genius hilarity that defined their SNL video shorts. Using the mockumentary format to edit down a conventional showbiz-comeback tale into an 86-minute barrage of rapid-fire jokes, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping is the funniest Hollywood comedy since 21 Jump Street, and the most stylistically daring would-be blockbuster since the Wachowskis set fire to mountains of Warner Bros' cash in order to make Speed Racer (no really, that movie is a fascinating cult gem (no, really!)). Not bad for a movie that's at least 30 percent dick jokes. The pop star of the title is one Conner4Real (Samberg), who was once a member of a white-boy rapper trio called the Style Boyz with Owen (Taccone) and Lawrence (Schaffer). While Owen and Lawrence were the actual talent in the group -- providing, respectively, the beats and the lyrics -- it's Conner who was launched to superstardom and a solo career after a hugely successful guest verse on a diva's hit single (Emma Stone, just one of many blink-and-you'll-miss-them cameos). The mockumentary catches up with Conner on the eve of the release of his second album, "Connquest," which turns out to be a career-annihilating catastrophe that leads to such PR disasters as a worldwide blackout and musician Seal getting mauled by wolves. Eventually, Conner is forced to reflect on the hollow nature of his fame as he considers a reunion with the Style Boyz. In fairness, this is hardly the freshest of movie plots: Dreamer finds fame, loses touch with his roots, then reconnects with his real friends and learns humility. And the last third of the film, in which Conner finds redemption with the Style Boyz, isn't as funny as what came before (keep in mind: It's still pretty damn funny). But the genius of Popstar is that the familiarity of its story allows Samberg, Taccone, and Schaffer (the three co-wrote the script, and Taccone and Schaffer co-directed) to string together a bunch of surreal, wildly different gags, never sticking with any idea for too long. The result is a movie that has the frenetic pacing and anything-could-happen shifts of a viral video, expanded to feature length. There are talking-head interviews with real-life musicians like ?uestlove, Ringo Starr, Nas, and Mariah Carey, as they discuss Conner4Real's career. There are outlandish music videos for songs like "Equal Rights,"" in which Conner declares his support for gay marriage while forcefully insisting to the audience that he himself is not gay. There are visualizations of social media, as Conner promotes his album and his fans attack him for his behavior, and appearances on Jimmy Fallon, and "old" clips from the early days of the Style Boyz. None of these are revolutionary ideas on their own, but the speed with which the Lonely Island run through them feels, at times, like it's capturing something essential about modern celebrity and maybe even modern life: Someone like Conner, dependent on the public's adoration via the Internet for his career, is caught in a hellish feedback loop as he tries to rehab his image through heavily staged gestures of "authenticity" that only make him look like more of a tool. Of course, that satire is undercut by an ending in which Conner is revealed to be a good friend and a good person after all -- maybe a tougher movie would have left him stuck in the hall of mirrors of his own narcissism forever. Then again, it's possible that this movie would have fallen apart (or would never have been produced in the first place) without a traditional character arc to anchor it, and if that's the case, the Lonely Island made the right choice. Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping is a screamingly funny takedown of celebrity culture and its related excesses, as well as a movie that feels, in the best possible way, like a product of our overcaffeinated, constantly connected age.