It's time for everyone's favorite show-PMZ! The show that somehow has thousands of followers despite providing no insightful thought or entertainment! Today we've got six people who clearly should question their life choices talking to a smarmy guy looking over a cubicle about pop star Connor 4 Real! Given, they're running a marathon of the 100 greatest films of all time over on the TCM channel- but why think when you can be immersed in celebrity culture?
(PMZ will return after these sarcastic comments.)
I dislike modern celebrity culture. Really, I do. I don't feel the same way other people do when it comes to fawning over popular figures. It's nothing personal- I don't particularly hate any celebrities or have strong feeling towards most mainstream figures- I just don't share the common attraction. But because I have access to the internet, I find myself battered by the unwanted celebrity gossip everywhere I turn. This has given me insight into the smart humor of PopStar, and why it works the way it does.
This film is a look into the private life of the entourage and work of pop star Connor For Real, a former member of the Style Boys (a popular trio) who has made a huge name for himself due to his undying charisma and voice. This is offset by the fact that he is entirely detatched from reality as opposed to other characters. His posse includes his best friend and DJ Owen (a former member of the Style Boys who makes admittedly good music), manager, and interchangable army of tag-alongs. The film is shot in a way that is reminiscent of a pop documentary charting the life and events during a particular time in Connor's life- a time that tests him when his fame takes a dive and his second album turns out to be a complete flop. In desperation, he hires an opening act- but when this opener seems to leapfrog Connor's popularity and his struggles isolate him from his friends, can this pop sensation bounce back from a crippling series of humiliations and reclaim the trust of his team and his friends? And what about the third Style Boy, the one who has faded out of the public eye? Maybe it takes more than two to make a perfect team.
The characters of the story, in the guises of pop sensations, play well on the typical tropes of celebrity ignorance and entitlement: when Connor says something stupid, people will agree because he's Connor. If Connor turns his back to the basketball hoop, the people around him will tell him it went in despite it completely missing it's target because he's Connor. And, when a terrible wardrobe malfunction makes him the target of media hordes, people watch- because he's Connor. It deals with the positives and negatives of stardom, and in a way that plays with both the context and work of the star himself, as well as his relationships and publicity missteps (my personal favorite comes from his song about equal rights for gay marriage, in which he constantly has to bring up that he is not, in fact, gay) . It's a fun picture that messes around with every trope to the last (there's even a TMZ cameo), and while it may not be relevant in the future, it certainly will still be funny.
OVERALL RATING: 8/10
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Do you think people at TMZ ever think about what they're doing with their lives? Are they able to work somewhere else, or is it some sort of prison? Is TMZ Hotel California, a prison we are unable to escape that may or may not be hell? Food for thought.....
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