Random Movie Review – Superstar

Here we go again. To make a long story short, I pick a movie at random, I review it, you read the review and find me brilliant and insightful, then you write a comment. For details on how it works, the MST3K scale, etc. Click here.

Superstar

Director: 
Bruce McCulloch

Writers: 
Molly Shannon
Steve Koren

Cast:
Molly Shannon – Mary Katherine Gallagher
Will Ferrell – Sky Corrigan
Elaine Hendrix – Evian Graham
Harland Williams – Slater
Mark McKinney – Father Ritley
Glynis Johns – Grandma
Emmy Laybourne – Helen

Country:
USA

Language:
English

Release Date:
8 October 1999

Ratings:
USA: PG-13
UK: 15
Common Sense Rating: Age 14
IMDB: 4.5/10
Metacritic: 42/100
Netflix: 3.1/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 33% (Rotten)

Yeah…this is what it’s all about, having a good excuse to watch a movie that I might otherwise not go out of my way to see. I was mildly interested in this movie when it came out, but I never got around to seeing it.

So I will admit that I have a thing for funny women, and since Saturday Night Live first premiered I have harbored crushes on many of the female cast members, Molly Shannon being one of them. Her character Mary Katherine Gallagher was just sexy enough with her too short Catholic school skirt, and yet so awkward…and don’t get me started on the whole armpit/fingers thing.

Mary is a misfit, and we all love a misfit because most of us can relate. High school and junior high were hell for me because my sense of humor wasn’t developed yet, and I was a misfit of course. Mary has a lot of special problems, her parents are dead due to a horrible accident that may or be not be shark related, she is being raised by her Grandmother who gets around in an electric wheelchair, and she has trouble expressing herself without quoting a monologue from a 1970’s made-for-TV movie.

What Mary really wants is to be loved, and that means a kiss. Not just a peck on the cheek or lips, mind you. She wants a full on Hollywood kiss where the music swells and two souls connect. What songwriter Bruce Cockburn calls “the suddenly compact universe of skin and breath and hair.” The guy she really wants this experience with is Sky Corrigan, the high school hottie. Played by Will Ferrell, Sky isn’t the full of himself jerk that he could be, he’s actually quite thoughtful and often has a kind word to say to his fellow students as they pass by (“Hey Tom, sorry your Dad’s dead. Hey Bartholomew, nice name!”). The problem is that Sky is already dating Evian, “the prettiest, most successful, most bulimic girl in school.” In order to rectify this situation, Mary must become a…

Superstar!

Now, I’m not even going to try to hide my affection for this movie. Maybe it just hit me as the right antidote for the mood I was in at the time, but it just seemed to me to be a sweet, innocent, check-your-brain-at-the-door movie and I liked it a lot (obviously more than most).  It’s always risky to take a 10 minute SNL skit and blow it up to a whole movie, but this one worked for me. Molly Shannon and Will Ferrell may have been a bit too old to play high schoolers at 34 and 32 respectively, but Stockard Channing was 34 and Olivia Newton-John was 30 when they made Grease and a lot of people like that piece of relentless crap so quit complaining!

Sorry.

The movie was directed by The Kids in the Hall member Bruce McCulloch and features another Kid in the Hall Mark McKinney as the principal of Mary’s school. He does a bit where he’s eating a piece of burnt toast that may be the funniest thing in the movie. Mary’s Grandmother is played by Glynis Johns from Mary Poppins for gosh sakes! Will Ferrell is always fun, and I found Emmy Laybourne adorable as Mary’s very energetic friend Helen.

The Misplaced Boy MST3K Movie Scale

Remember that the scale goes from Dr. Forrester (bad) to Joel (good). So for a check-your-brain-at-the-door movie it was cute and funny and I’m giving it a…

Crow

And finally, here’s my Random Quote Whore Quote: Remember, it goes like this: “[Movie Title] is a [adjective], [adjective] [noun] of a movie! [Star of Movie] is [adjective]!!!”

“Superstar is a conducted, godly plasterer of a movie! Molly Shannon is chemotherapeutic!!!”