What better time for a mockumentary than April Fools Day? The history of music industry mockery is long and storied, but Graham, Sarah and Mark went for a recent example – Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, a note-perfect spoof of the early 2010s style of pop-promo documentary. A flop on its initial release in 2016, time has shown that ever since this film was born, it was dope.
Join our trio of reviewers as we consider the career of The Lonely Island, the comedy hip-hop trio who created and star in the film, as well as the real-life inspirations behind some of the film’s funniest jokes, how its cavalcade of cameos – everyone from Nas to Mariah Carey to Ringo Starr – matches up to real-life music documentaries, and the reasons why this film couldn’t beat out the Ninja Turtles at the US box office. We also have a dramatic reading of the press release for Justin Bieber’s new album, which could be taken straight from Conner4Real’s dialogue.
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Often accused of being pretentious, the Style Council chose to face down these allegations in 1987 by promoting their album The Cost of Loving with a non-linear musical satire on British identity in the age of Thatcherism, narrated by a pre-Reverend Richard Coles. Surprisingly, this did not stop people from calling them pretentious, and the resulting film JerUSAlem (it is our sad duty to confirm that yes, you saw what they did there) vanished from sight.
MARCH’S POP SCREEN+
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping – Lonely Island – Archive
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