Superstar (PG-13, 1999)

Mary Katherine (Molly Shannon) has one dream—she wants to be passionately kissed. While she waits, she practices on whatever is available, including a tree and a stop sign. Ultimately, she becomes a little more specific in her dream. She wants to be kissed by high school dream date Sky (Will Ferrell). And she decides that since he is going steady with pretty cheerleader Evian (Elaine Hendrix) the only way to get his attention is to become a superstar. And she thinks she can do that by winning the Catholic Teen Magazine VD Awareness Talent Contest. Other attempts at humor include a boy with obsessive-compulsive disorder, a television falling on a dog, an Irish step-dancing tragedy, and repeated falling down and showing of the world's whitest cotton underpants.

Even fans of the Mary Katherine Gallagher skits on Saturday Night Live will find this movie overlong at 82 minutes. It is one thing for a 30-something woman to play the part of a high school girl in a skit, but another to watch her try to act the part of a high school girl in a movie, even one as plotless as this one.

Younger teens will get a kick out of the naughty words and slapstick humor and may even relate to Mary Katherine's struggle to become someone who is admired while staying true to herself. Any older folks who wander in by mistake may enjoy some references to old movies, especially Made-for-TV classics like The Boy in the Plastic Bubble.

Studio: Paramount Pictures
Director: Bruce McCulloch
Cast: Molly Shannon, Tom Green, Will Ferrell
Genre: Comedy
Run time: 81 minutes
Theatrical release: October 8, 1999
DVD release: April 11, 2000
MPAA Rating: PG-13
MPAA explanation: sex-related humor and language