SUMMERFEST '22: Musical Double Features I

For the past couple of summers I have set myself a ridiculous summer movie-watching schedule with a theme for each week and a movie for every day. This is generally a way to get me through the summer tedium until I take my end-of-summer vacation. I also tend to use it to get to a bunch of movies that have been on my to-watch list for ages, as well as rewatch some favorites. I also picked a couple of trailers to go with each movie because I am That Nerd.

Regardless of the calendar and solstices, I typically count Memorial Day weekend as the start of summer. So to kick things off, I'm filling this holiday weekend with some musical (or music-themed) double features. This and the next three days' posts were inspired by a tweet I saw where a theater was doing a double feature of Streets of Fire and Grease 2, which I decided I needed to do for myself (see tomorrow's post). It ended up being an excuse to scratch half a dozen movies off my to-watch list.

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016)

Trailers: Vox Lux, Stunt Rock

Great and hilarious mockumentary, in the style of Behind the Music (or whatever the modern equivalent would be). Written, directed and starring The Lonely Island (Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone), and featuring loads of their songs, created specifically for the film. Full of cameos from real life music industry personalities, lending everything a veneer of authenticity. This is first and foremost, though, a story of the importance of friendship and keeping your relationships intact through the ups and downs of success. I liked this more than I expected to.

Josie and the Pussycats (2001)

Trailers: Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, Dreamgirls

This has been on my to-watch list for some time. Another story about a music group that follows the Behind the Music trajectory, but the cast and the writing make it great. I confess I enjoy the villain’s plot a bit more than the boilerplate stuff with the band. But it’s still a lot of fun. Nearly perfect, in fact. I say nearly because I kind of despised the gag with Carson Daly. There’s nothing wrong with him being in the film as himself, as he was at the time a ubiquitous presence on MTV. But teasing a romance between him and Tara Reid’s character (Reid being his RL girlfriend/fiancee at the time) was incredibly cringy and took me right out of the film for a few minutes.