Ten months into 2016, this is unexpectedly the funniest movie of the year.  Seriously.  I assumed Popstar would just be one long SNL skit, and it is to an extent, a mockumentary chronicling the rise and fall of a Justin Bieber-type…..for lack of a better word…..jackass, but regardless the jokes are about as consistent as it gets in a brisk 85 minutes. The movie’s early focus is Andy Samberg’s brash and entitled celebrity character Conner4Real, but it expands to a great satire of 2016 fame in general.  I counted 41 different cameos of actors, comedians, and musicians, my favorite being Will Arnett in a SPOT-ON spoof of that obnoxious TMZ TV show.

Someone that I wasn’t familiar with is Popstar’s unsung hero Chris Redd who plays Hunter the Hungry, a hilarious take on rappers in the vein of Tyler the Creator. Apparently Redd is a very new cast member to SNL, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see him pop up more often going forward.  Anyways, solid straight up comedies like this are few and far between these days and I would put Popstar up against any of the genre in the past two years (probably best since 2014’s Neighbors).  Tier 2 – Runner Up