View Poll Results: Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping

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  • 4 Real!

    10 83.33%
  • Baby, baby, baby, noooooo!

    2 16.67%
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Thread: Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (Akiva Schaffer/Jorma Taccone)

  1. #26
    Piss off, ghost! number8's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Donald Glover
    I was actually just reading about Matt Damon and he’s like, ‘There’s a culture of outrage.’ I’m like, ‘Well, they have a reason to be outraged.’ I think it’s a lot of dudes just being scared. They’re like, ‘What if I did something and I didn’t realize it?’ I’m like, ‘Deal with it.’
    Movie Theater Diary

  2. #27
    Moderator TGM's Avatar
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    I thought this was freaking great. Shame this one bombed so badly.

  3. #28
    In the belly of a whale Henry Gale's Avatar
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    Agreed, it's so good it hurts that not many are seeing it. Some scattered, over-long thoughts:

    I mean, first off, I already knew a bunch of the songs going in (So Humble, Mona Lisa, Finest Girl) and otherwise just tried to stick to the songs on the soundtrack that were labelled as not being in the movie (including the astonishingly catchy and well-produced "Should I Move?" with Akon), but in classic Lonely Island fashion, the music here really is much more sonically and melodically impressive than it has any right to be.

    So much so that it almost doesn't fall into that long-storied category of music and movies within movies that provide a huge disconnect between how the fictional world of something views something and our own reality's common sense view of it. The songs objectively really do work, and the the tone of the celebrities' awe and inspiration of Style Boyz and Conner work on a serious level just needs to be swapped out for how much it worked comedically for me (while again, musically we're more or less on the same page). It got to the point where the moment where Akiva's character is listening to "Finest Girl" and says it's fucking awful, I almost audibly went, "Is it though?".. realizing I was taking offense to the person who co-wrote it acting as a fictional character hating it. Remarkable.

    Sure, the people in the movie take it seriously for our amusement and it all has an inherent irony that plays differently for them than it does to us (to over-explain how comedy works), with things like Hunter The Hungry being a version of Tyler The Creator and "Equal Rights" being a "Same Love" send-up being ideas only we can see (but in a way, it's even funnier if the Macklemore song existed in their world before Conner wrote his), but we should take it seriously because of how smart and subversive it is. It's amazing that the guys are still this good at this sort of thing a full decade after Lazy Sunday.

    To 8's point about it likely feeling dated years from now, I think it'll all play a lot better as a time capsule to this particular time in pop and pop culture rather than something hard to grasp, maybe even because we'll likely see an evolution of it. Maybe not to the extent of Idiocracy parallels in the time of Trump 2016, but perhaps something closer to Zoolander coming well before our era of people having careers from Instagram sponsorships/Image-Is-Everything/Kris Jenner Media Orchestration, and its sequel not feeling that removed from anything, with the fashion and social media worlds embracing the joke. But maybe some jokes in Popstar will play differently to those further removed from it in the future not knowing all of its reference points, since it's all still independently ridiculous enough to still find it funny on its own terms. I know growing up I wouldn't have realized what a lot of the bits in, say, Airplane! were riffing on if it weren't for my dad, but I still loved it regardless. A worse example might be how a lot of young people find a lot of Family Guy cutaways funny without knowing what pre-'90s movies / shows / commercials it was even parodying. ("Lol so random!" - acquaintances)

    As someone who's found DJ Khaled hilarious for maybe ten years now (before his recent cultural affirmation made it all a little more complicated), and even now checks his insane Snapchat most days, I do think with this movie we've officially reached Peak Khaled, BUT the use of his cadence in the catchphrase song for the line "DEEEE JAAAAAYYYY TANNER" made me and my friends laugh well after the scene ended. And then they perfectly put a talking head bit of Khaled right after it.

    It says a lot that even though I love Andre, Arnett, Perretti, and Birbiglia, the CMZ bits weren't even huge highlights for me with everything else going on, but that I'd still watch a whole other movie / series of sorts with them in and around that fictional office.

    This movie barrels through so much good stuff that it actually need for the story at large, it's crazy. I could've watched a very unnecessarily long cut of this, and easily more than once. I just hope they already locked down all the Blu-ray extras for all the scenes, songs and characters we only get glimpses of for an extensive, Walk Hard-style release. Seriously, look at the Walk Hard Blu-ray (or at least a review of it), and tell me that it might be the most incredible and unexpectedly thorough collection of special features for a comedy, and one that something like this wouldn't endlessly benefit from.

    Anyway, basically loved it. Now we do our best to help give this enough of a cult status for The Lonely Island to be allowed to make this sort of thing again.
    Last 11 things I really enjoyed:

    Speed Racer (Wachowski/Wachowski, 2008)
    Safe (Haynes, 1995)
    South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (Parker, 1999)
    Beastie Boys Story (Jonze, 2020)
    Bad Trip (Sakurai, 2020)
    What's Up Doc? (Bogdanovich, 1972)
    Diva (Beineix, 1981)
    Delicatessen (Caro/Jeunet, 1991)
    The Hunger (Scott, 1983)
    Pineapple Express (Green, 2008)
    Chungking Express (Wong, 1994)

  4. #29
    Screenwriter Lazlo's Avatar
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    Keep listening to the "catchphrase verse". So funny. "Dinky nutz!"

    My favorite joke in the whole movie was [
    ]
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  5. #30
    Piss off, ghost! number8's Avatar
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    I saw Tyler the Creator on Saturday and it was great but I could not stop thinking about Hunter the Hungry. Tyler acts exactly like that on stage.
    Quote Quoting Donald Glover
    I was actually just reading about Matt Damon and he’s like, ‘There’s a culture of outrage.’ I’m like, ‘Well, they have a reason to be outraged.’ I think it’s a lot of dudes just being scared. They’re like, ‘What if I did something and I didn’t realize it?’ I’m like, ‘Deal with it.’
    Movie Theater Diary

  6. #31
    In the belly of a whale Henry Gale's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting number8 (view post)
    I saw Tyler the Creator on Saturday and it was great but I could not stop thinking about Hunter the Hungry. Tyler acts exactly like that on stage.
    Oh absolutely. Saw him within the last year and that freshness worked wonders for me seeing Hunter erupt on screen. Not to mention the character's telling the audience they suck is exactly the sort of thing Taco did as an opening DJ (likely for his own amusement, but still).

    It's almost a shame it's so directly stemming from him because Tyler is so funny and savvy that he would've been a perfect cameo for this too if it made any sense for him to exist in the same universe. Maybe a character like Timberlake's chef could've worked.
    Last 11 things I really enjoyed:

    Speed Racer (Wachowski/Wachowski, 2008)
    Safe (Haynes, 1995)
    South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (Parker, 1999)
    Beastie Boys Story (Jonze, 2020)
    Bad Trip (Sakurai, 2020)
    What's Up Doc? (Bogdanovich, 1972)
    Diva (Beineix, 1981)
    Delicatessen (Caro/Jeunet, 1991)
    The Hunger (Scott, 1983)
    Pineapple Express (Green, 2008)
    Chungking Express (Wong, 1994)

  7. #32
    This was 2/3rds great, but the back third, which centers on the attempted reconciliation of the band, drains away a lot of the freshness and fun. It's no Hot Rod, but it'll do.
    Last 10 Movies Seen
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    Run
    (2020) 64
    The Whistlers
    (2019
    ) 55
    Pawn (2020) 62
    Matilda (1996) 37
    The Town that Dreaded Sundown
    (1976) 61
    Moby Dick (2011) 50

    Soul
    (2020) 64

    Heroic Duo
    (2003) 55
    A Moment of Romance (1990) 61
    As Tears Go By (1988) 65

    Stuff at Letterboxd
    Listening Habits at LastFM

  8. #33
    Super Moderator dreamdead's Avatar
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    I'll co-sign with Spinal on this one. There's a lack of commitment to the central conceit, and while we're all willing to accept that truly idiotic things get naturalized in the pop limelight, it seems ill-conceived that they went as broad as they did here. The JT material works, as he seems like a generally giddy but real person.

    The other members of Lonely Island just have too little material to work with here, and even if the whole thing reads as a metatextual assessment of why the Lonely Island people keep working together rather than letting Samberg go off on his own, it just isn't grounded enough to generate the necessary ridicule.

    I'll add to the others, though, about the TMZ roast, which is beautifully absurd, as was the socially conscious song.
    The Boat People - 9
    The Power of the Dog - 7.5
    The King of Pigs - 7

  9. #34
    Replacing Luck Since 1984 Dukefrukem's Avatar
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    I can't remember the last time I laughed this hard.
    Twitch / Youtube / Film Diary

    Quote Quoting D_Davis (view post)
    Uwe Boll movies > all Marvel U movies
    Quote Quoting TGM (view post)
    I work in grocery. I have not gotten sick. My fellow employees have not gotten sick. If the virus were even remotely as contagious as its being presented as, why haven’t entire store staffs who come into contact with hundreds of people per day, thousands per week, all falling ill in mass nationwide?

  10. #35
    Replacing Luck Since 1984 Dukefrukem's Avatar
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    Just reflecting on this a bit more, the Eric Andre parody of TMZ with Will Arnett is my favorite. Dying thinking of it.

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    Quote Quoting D_Davis (view post)
    Uwe Boll movies > all Marvel U movies
    Quote Quoting TGM (view post)
    I work in grocery. I have not gotten sick. My fellow employees have not gotten sick. If the virus were even remotely as contagious as its being presented as, why haven’t entire store staffs who come into contact with hundreds of people per day, thousands per week, all falling ill in mass nationwide?

  11. #36
    White Tiger Field Stay Puft's Avatar
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    I forgot to post a follow-up after I had seen it, but yeah, I enjoyed it. I agree that it runs out of steam eventually but I still laughed pretty hard throughout.

    Connor's apology scene is incredible.

    And as good as Connor's songs are, "Karate Guy" is my jam.
    Giving up in 2020. Who cares.

    maɬni – towards the ocean, towards the shore (Sky Hopinka) ***½
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  12. #37
    In the belly of a whale Henry Gale's Avatar
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    I might've already said it somewhere here, but whatever: The Blu-ray for this is perfect. If there's anything you love about the movie, there's at least double the amount of it that was deleted on there for you to bask in.

    So yes, way more CMZ.
    Last 11 things I really enjoyed:

    Speed Racer (Wachowski/Wachowski, 2008)
    Safe (Haynes, 1995)
    South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (Parker, 1999)
    Beastie Boys Story (Jonze, 2020)
    Bad Trip (Sakurai, 2020)
    What's Up Doc? (Bogdanovich, 1972)
    Diva (Beineix, 1981)
    Delicatessen (Caro/Jeunet, 1991)
    The Hunger (Scott, 1983)
    Pineapple Express (Green, 2008)
    Chungking Express (Wong, 1994)

  13. #38
    The Pan megladon8's Avatar
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    This was pretty funny.

    I should see Hot Rod.
    "All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"

    "Rick...it's a flamethrower."

  14. #39
    Do it; Hot Rod is better
    Last 10 Movies Seen
    (90+ = canonical, 80-89 = brilliant, 70-79 = strongly recommended, 60-69 = good, 50-59 = mixed, 40-49 = below average with some good points, 30-39 = poor, 20-29 = bad, 10-19 = terrible, 0-9 = soul-crushingly inept in every way)

    Run
    (2020) 64
    The Whistlers
    (2019
    ) 55
    Pawn (2020) 62
    Matilda (1996) 37
    The Town that Dreaded Sundown
    (1976) 61
    Moby Dick (2011) 50

    Soul
    (2020) 64

    Heroic Duo
    (2003) 55
    A Moment of Romance (1990) 61
    As Tears Go By (1988) 65

    Stuff at Letterboxd
    Listening Habits at LastFM

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