Overnight sensation. Sex symbol. Action hero. Not exactly phrases you would use to describe “Weird Al” Yankovic, the beloved parody lyricist who rose to fame in the 80’s with such hits as “I Love Rocky Road” and “Eat It.” He’s always been a dorky accordion player, decked out in Hawaiian shirts and frizzled locks.
And yet, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, a rip-roaringly hilarious biopic on the musician, would have you thinking otherwise. Perhaps you didn’t know that Al’s debut album went quintuple-platinum, or that he had an infamous affair with Madonna, or that his hit song “Amish Paradise” was based on true events.
You likely didn’t know about any of these things because they’re not true. Musical biopics have always felt comfortable stretching the truth, but Weird doesn’t just stretch it––it explodes it to the point of…well, parody. It’s only fitting that music’s most beloved farce artist would take the same approach to a story about his own life and, in the same way Yankovic reimagined Top 40 hits as absurdist goofery, director Eric Appel (who co-wrote the script with Yankovic) skewers genre tropes in a radical reinterpretation that puts dumb fun at the forefront.
Of course, not everything in the film is untrue (Al would have you believe nothing is). Al Yankovic was indeed once Alfie Yankovic, a sheltered kid raised in California aspiring to be a musical comedian a la Dr. Demento. However, things quickly turn to creative license as his obsession with parody songs and polka parties is seen as blasphemous to his traditionalist parents. His unassuming mother (Julianne Nicholson, seen next in Blonde) wishes to secretly support his dreams, while his father (Toby Huss) wants Alfie to work at the local factory alongside him. It’s an obvious sendup of rock and roll rebellion, but it still feels grounded in authenticity, a delicate balance that permeates the entire film.
Eventually, Al moves out of the house and tries to make it in the business. This is where Daniel Radcliffe takes over in yet another bananas career move to add to his beautifully eccentric film career since putting away the wand and robe. Radcliffe isn’t exactly flexing any acting chops here, but he is fully committing to the absurdity.
The film smartly has him playing “a version of Al” (to use Radcliffe’s words following the film’s premiere at TIFF) and doesn’t have him attempting to do some hackneyed impression. The film even goes so far as to dub Radcliffe over with Yankovic’s vocals, another fantastic takedown of a should-be-dead genre trope. Aside from a gloriously bad wig and stache, the artifice of Radcliffe as a performer is always there and that just adds to the fun of it all.
Weird Al fans know the story from here: after getting radio play from his Knack parody “My Bologna,” Dr. Demento (Rainn Wilson, clearly having the time of his life) takes him under his wing and helps him skyrocket to international stardom, running into everyone from Peewee Herman to Pablo Escobar. Most notably is his passionate love affair with Madonna, played by a similarly committed Evan Rachel Wood. Unlike the many, many wonderful cameos this film has at its disposal, Wood’s comedic turn has a large presence throughout the story and she delivers on all fronts. Ironically, she was never in the running for the role for the pop diva’s own upcoming biopic, yet does a miraculous impression of her.
Alas, Wood does not perform in the film, which feels like a missed opportunity to some extent. This is Weird Al’s show, and all of the musical performances are by him and him alone. The film features several notable hits performed in full, from “Another One Rides The Bus” to “Like a Surgeon,” and these musical moments make for some of the film’s highlights. If anything, the film could have featured even more of his songs; say what you will about Bohemian Rhapsody, but one of the film’s highlights is its reveling in the band’s iconic library of songs, no matter how warranted it was.
Several iconic Yankovic songs don’t make an appearance, including any of his actual polkas! Considering Yankovic was a co-writer and supervising music producer on the film, this feels like an easy win left on the cutting room floor. On top of that, the film’s concert sequences are also fairly minimal, yet the ones we get are so wonderfully designed and staged that one or two would’ve even further saturated the immense joy this film provides.
Admittedly, this could just be a matter of money. The film was made for less than 15 million, a fraction of the budget provided to its competitors (Elvis, released just earlier this year, had a budget of 85 million). Despite how fun the film is, it never quite manages to feel cinematic, nor stylistic in a way that emulates the subject himself. Appel may be a veteran television director with a more than competent understanding of composition, but his feature film debut doesn’t feel like he’s stretching his potential. There are a few inspired sequences, including one LSD-induced drug trip, but the film’s visual identity feels very traditional in a way that Weird Al is not.
Appel’s basic aesthetic may also stem from the film’s origins as a sketch on Funny or Die sketch published over a decade ago. Daniel Radciffe is clearly a major step up from Aaron Paul, but there is an ongoing sense that, had Appel and Yankovic been given a larger platform (no offense to Roku, if there’s any better way to break into the original content game, you’ll be hard-pressed to find it), the film could have surpassed even Walk Hard or This is Spinal Tap.
Weird can’t quite overcome its origins as a literal bit, but man does it commit to that bit and not let up for a second. Al Yankovic’s mythos as a pop culture icon has always had an elusive, unknowable quality, and this movie knows it. Through its absurd humor and playful parody, this lambasting of a musical biopic is one of the few of its genre to truly understand the allure of the artist its capturing. Nobody expects you to believe what you are about to see, but that’s not the point: this is Weird Al’s world, and we’re all just living in it.
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story had its World Premiere in the Midnight Madness section of Toronto International Film Film Festival 2022. The film will make its streaming debut exclusively on The Roku Channel on Friday, November 4, 2022
Director: Eric Appel
Writer: Eric Appel and ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic
Rated: NR
Runtime: 108m
Though it lacks a cinematic quality, ‘Weird’ understands its titular subject better than most other musical biopics.
-
GVN Rating 8
-
User Ratings (0 Votes)
0
Larry Fried is a filmmaker, writer, and podcaster based in New Jersey. He is the host and creator of the podcast “My Favorite Movie is…,” a podcast dedicated to helping filmmakers make somebody’s next favorite movie. He is also the Visual Content Manager for Special Olympics New Jersey, an organization dedicated to competition and training opportunities for athletes with intellectual disabilities across the Garden State.