Superstar

October 10, 1999

Way better than I thought it would be, in a sex with inanimate objects sort of way.

I laughed my ass off in this film. I was fully expecting another It’s Pat! (don’t give me any shit about watching it, I just wanted to see Ween!). Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised by Superstar, especially since I never found the SNL skits very funny at all. I personally dig on the Spartan Spirit Cheerleaders – I hope they have a film come out soon. Anyway, the reason this film is so funny is because it is so random. Bizarrely random…like an entire cafeteria doing the robot, like satan girl singing The Devil Went Down to Georgia, like that nasty dog with a mohawk…

Directed by Kids in the Hall alum, Bruce McCulloch (flying pig!) and stars another Kid, Mark McKinney as Father Ritley – pure heaven! I miss the orgiastic ecstasy of my college days, staying up and watching Kids in the Hall marathons, eating pizza out of the box and drinking wine out of the bag, smoking two packs of cigarettes a day and not coughing, being in love with old school Comedy Central, because after The Ben Stiller Show was Kids in the Hall…whoa! Sorry about the flashback, it happens sometimes.

I was probably the oldest person in the theater when I went to see this film. I was laughing at totally different things, because, as my friend Michelle is always quick to point out, I was a teenager in the 80s! I thought it was marvelous to have Glynis Johns play Mary Katherine’s wheelchair-ridden grandmother. Of course, no one else in the theater remembered her as the suffragette Mrs. Banks in Mary Poppins, or any of her other musical work. I was the only one in the theater who laughed when God put Spirit of the Sky in the CD player. (Remember the Krokus version of that song in the 80s? Totally rad!) I was also probably the only one who thought Laura Palmer every time Mary made out with a tree. (Ok, I admit that’s a little obscure, not too many people remember Twin Peaks these days, much less have read The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer.)

I liked Tom Green as Sky’s sidekick. He was just as obnoxious as the ones I remember. Harland Williams was so hot (I have this thing for mentally unstable guys, if you haven’t noticed) as the crazy motorcycle mute Slater. I was totally touched by the scene where Mary, covered in paint, runs out of the school and rides off into the sunset as Sister Christian (another of my absolute favorite 80s songs) screams in the background. (I think that was ripped straight from Footloose, but correct me if I’m wrong.) I think that was the second best use of that song, next to that stressful as hell scene out of Boogie Nights.

If you wanna laugh your ass off, go see this film. But go during the days, so your “sophisticated” friends that are going to see For the Love of the Game or Runaway Bride won’t make fun of you.