Superstar
Originally written for The Occidental.
Saturday Night Live has given birth to an impressive collection of films, including the likes of The Blues Brothers. It is well-known that SNL has often been a stepping-stone for brilliant comedians to star in brilliantly funny films.
Unfortunately for the talented Molly Shannon, Superstar is not among those ranks.
Superstar begins rather well, with the young Mary Katherine Gallagher (Shannon) explaining that all she’s ever wanted is a kiss – and not just any kiss, but a breath-sucking, knee-melting Hollywood kiss. She eventually realized that to get kissed like the folks in movies, she’d have to become like them – a superstar. This is all fine and good, but the movie doesn’t live up to its beginning.
Mary Katherine is now a student at Catholic High School, where she is constantly trying to make friends and be popular, and embarrassing herself. Things only get more disheartening when she finds the one guy she knows would be perfect to kiss: Sky Corrigan (Will Ferrel of Night at the Roxbury), the best-looking and most popular guy at school.
There are two problems at this point. The first is that both Shannon and Ferrell are too old to be playing high school students. While it might work on SNL where the entire cast is about the same age, here almost everyone else actually looks like a teenager. Shannon manages to pull it off, but somehow Ferrell’s excellent technique is missing something. Mary Katherine is supposed to stand out, but Sky is the most popular guy at the school, and Ferrell just can’t pull it off.
The second, and more serious flaw, is the constant humiliation Mary Katherine is subjected to. High School was a miserable enough place without stretching both credulity and patience by creating long and painful scenes to torment both the characters and the audience. A certain amount of embarrassment can be funny, but when taken too far, it becomes unpleasant.
Like SNL itself, parts of Superstar are inspired (most notably Jesus, who appears to Mary Katherine in a dream, and is a mixture of Sunday-school artwork and Sky, by way of the sixties), and I did indeed laugh. But I spent far too much time writhing in sympathy to enjoy it.
So, my faithful readers, what is the bottom line? Superstar may be worth the ticket price at The Eagle, but if you’re looking for a good SNL comedy, rent The Blues Brothers.