Frank Mancini has big plans for his 3 children. Their boy band, The Franks, Etc. is unthreatening and charmingly inept enough for birthday parties and small town fairs, but Frank's dreams are bigger than that.

Sadly, times are changing. The children are growing up, and the lights are going down on the cheery family acts they can supply. When an unexpected tragedy leaves him without an act, desperate Frank turns his fierce attention to his shy tomboy daughter, Julia.

But Julia has spent a lifetime in her brothers' shadows and doesn’t match her father’s ambition, or fit into the tired old routine. More dubiously, the kinds of opportunities they used to have as a boy band have been replaced by the riskier attractions of adult entertainment, and audiences are now expecting to see much more of their stars than ever before.

A Star is Stillborn is a hilarious and deeply moving film about fame, family, and the search to be noticed.