Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping

Plot

Conner Friel, a musical prodigy, forms a pop rap group dubbed "The Style Boyz" with his childhood friends, Lawrence Dunn and Owen Bouchard. They almost instantly gain fame in the music industry and inspire many modern musicians, who extol Conner and the group in mock interviews. However, after not receiving credit for writing a guest verse that propelled Conner to stardom (the Catchphrase Verse), Lawrence leaves the group.

After the Style Boyz disband, Conner begins a solo act, taking on the name "Conner4Real", with Owen as his DJ. Lawrence begins farming in Colorado after a failed attempt at going solo. Conner's debut album Thriller, Also rockets to the top of the charts, and his fame increases.

After releasing singles "Equal Rights", "Mona Lisa", and "Ibithia", Conner releases his highly anticipated second album, Connquest. As he wrote every song himself and used hundreds of different producers rather than Owen's original beats, the album is universally panned and a commercial failure. Because of the album's low sales, Conner's manager Harry suggests having Aquaspin, a home appliance manufacturer, sponsor the tour. The company's appliances begin playing Conner's songs when in use, causing a nationwide power outage.

Conner begins his tour, but the shows do not sell as well as he had hoped. Harry suggests they hire up-and-coming rapper Hunter the Hungry as an opening act, and the ticket sales begin to rise. Conner adds new gimmicks to his act, including a robotic mask for Owen, who feels increasingly ostracized, and publicizes his relationship with actress Ashley Wednesday. However, when a trick is botched in Nashville, Conner is exposed naked (without his penis visible) mid-concert and becomes the subject of mockery. Conner's publicist Paula Klein suggests he pull another publicity stunt to deflect attention from his humiliation.

Conner decides to propose to his girlfriend Ashley on E! with a display including several trained Party Wolves and a performance by Seal. However, Seal's vocals agitate the wolves, causing them to break loose, mauling everyone, including Seal. As a result of the incident, Conner is sued by Seal and Ashley breaks up with him, later marrying Seal. Conner and Owen appear as guests on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and the two perform the "Donkey Roll", the Style Boyz's biggest hit, onstage, which is humiliating for Conner but gratifying for Owen.

Cast

Andy Samberg as Conner "Kid Conner" Friel / Conner4Real, a pop rap star and former Style Boy.

Evan Fine as 10-year-old Conner.

Jorma Taccone as Owen "Kid Contact" Bouchard, a former Style Boy and Conner's current DJ.

Maxwell Jenkins as 10-year-old Owen.

Akiva Schaffer as Lawrence "Kid Brain" Dunn, a former Style Boy and songwriter who moved to Colorado and became a farmer following the group's breakup.

Elliott Smith as 10-year-old Lawrence.

Sarah Silverman as Paula Klein, Conner's publicist.

Tim Meadows as Harry Duggins, Conner's manager.

Maya Rudolph as Deborah, a representative for Aquaspin.

Joan Cusack as Tilly Friel, Conner's supportive and party-animal mother.

Imogen Poots as Ashley Wednesday, an actress and Conner's girlfriend.

Chris Redd as Hunter the Hungry, an underground rapper who tours with Conner.

Edgar Blackmon and James Buckley as Eddie and Sponge, members of Conner's entourage who serve as his yes men.

The rest of Conner's staff include: Ashley Moore as Sarah, his personal assistant; Bill Hader as Zippy, a roadie; Danny Strong as his perspective manipulator; Will Forte as his bagpipe player; and Justin Timberlake as Tyrus Quash (uncredited), Conner's chef who later dresses as Mr. Fish during the Style Boyz performance at the Poppys.

Production

Principal photography on the film began on May 14, 2015, announced by Universal Pictures under the working title Conner4real. The production filmed at The Forum for 11 days, with other crowd footage including repurposed material from Morgan Spurlock's documentary One Direction: This Is Us. Samberg also introduced Maroon 5 at the Honda Center while in character. There was over 300 hours of filmed footage, and the group ran several versions by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who had produced their 2005 pilot episode Awesometown.

Release

The film was advertised on YouTube the month of its release date. On May 10, 2016, Samberg made an appearance on NBC's The Voice in character as Conner4real to perform "I'm So Humble", alongside judge Adam Levine, and give answers to contestants in a farcical Q&A session. Samberg then made a guest appearance on the season 41 finale of Saturday Night Live, on May 21, 2016. Promoted as a new SNL Digital Short, he appeared in character as Conner4real and debuted a song from the movie ("Finest Girl"). Taccone and Schaffer received guest writing credits for the episode. The Lonely Island also released a video "I'm a Weirdo" to their YouTube channel, featuring Conner4real rapping on the street.

The film was released in the United States on June 3, 2016, and in the United Kingdom on August 26, 2016, by Universal Pictures. It did not get an international release.

Home media

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping was released on Digital HD on August 16, 2016, and on Blu-ray and DVD on September 13, 2016, by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. As of June 16, 2017, it had made $1.1 million in home media sales. Shout! Factory released the film on Blu-ray on November 12, 2019, which included the previous special features in a limited edition steelbook case.

Soundtrack

The Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping soundtrack album, performed by the Lonely Island, was released on June 3, 2016, the day of the film's release.

Reception

Box office

In the United States, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping opened on June 3, 2016, alongside Me Before You and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows and was expected to gross around $7 million from 2,311 theaters in its opening weekend. The film grossed $322,000 from its Thursday previews and $1.8 million on its first day. In its opening weekend, the film grossed $4.6 million and finishing 8th at the box office. The film was a box office bomb, grossing just $9.5 million against its $20 million budget.

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 79% of 172 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.7/10. The website's consensus reads: "Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping updates the rock mockumentary for the 21st century mainstream – and hits many of its low-hanging targets with side-splitting impact." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 68 out of 100, based on 43 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.

Vince Mancini of Uproxx gave the film a positive review, saying: "It's as stupid as it is relevant, and that layering of humor styles — insightful satire, no-holds-barred vulgarity, irresistible juvenilia, surreal pop art, timeless deadpan — are Popstar‘s hallmark. It's smart, dumb, silly, and gross in all the right ways. I loved it." David Palmer of The Reel Deal gave the film 8/10, calling it the best comedy of 2016 and praised the songs.

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of The A.V. Club wrote: "No music mockumentary has really managed to reproduce This Is Spinal Tap's comic mojo, but Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping gets closer than most to that subgenre-defining comedy's mix of the dead-on and the over-the-top, even if it tends to go for quantity over quality."

Despite the film's shortcomings at the box office, it has developed a cult following in the years since its release. Taccone called it "a love letter to our friendship" and Schaffer has said that "the fact that people thought it was good was the most important thing to me. It's great that people have found it over the last 10 years." Samberg said that "the fact that it has resonated and is still being discussed 10 years later is all we ever could've dreamed of."