Weird: The Al Yankovic Story

This masterful spoof of musical biopics is insanely inventive from its opening send-up of the protagonist’s childhood to its bonkers final reel.  Arguably the funniest film of 2022, ‘Weird’ Al Yankovic has crafted a film parody that’s every bit as funny, silly and joyous as his musical ones.

Premise:  From his humble beginnings as a rebellious accordion player to becoming the king of the musical world, this film chronicles the (exaggerated and fictionalised) rise and fall of ‘Weird’ Al Yankovic (Daniel Radcliffe) in the 80s, including his tumultuous romance with Madonna (Evan Rachel Wood).

Review:

This film originally started life as a Funny or Die “fake trailer” sketch back in 2010, and you could have been forgiven for wondering whether there really was enough material to stretch the joke – that the life story of parody-songwriter ‘Weird’ Al Yankovic could form the basis of a spoof of ultra-serious musical biopics – into a full-length feature film.  The good news is that the inventiveness of Al Yankovic and his co-writer/director Eric Appel means that there is no shortage of laughs at any point during the 1 hour 50 minute runtime, and making sure that Weird: The Al Yankovic Story hits all of the key plot points that you’d find in an overwrought musical biopic gives the film a very clear narrative structure.

Perhaps what is a little unexpected is just how blurred the line between fact and fiction is in places.  You should be under no misapprehension – this film does not in any way claim to be telling a “true story” (as will become clear as you watch the movie) – but equally, it’s surreal that Al Yankovic really was given his big break by someone called Dr. Demento (played in the movie by Rainn Wilson), he really has been working with the same bandmates since the early 80s, and his first parody song really was recorded in a public bathroom.

“…Daniel Radcliffe plays the ridiculousness of the situations with a completely straight face…”

The film absolutely belongs to Daniel Radcliffe, who plays the adult version of Al Yankovic to excessive perfection.  Like in last year’s Guns Akimbo, he’s able to play the ridiculousness of many of the situations with a completely straight face, and following on from The Lost City earlier this year, Daniel Radcliffe continues to display an impressive natural affinity for comedy.  For example, he can play a scene showing the inspiration for a parody song about sandwich meat as if it’s an Oscar-highlights-reel moment of high drama, which sets the tone for this delightfully subversive spoof.

While there are a host of great comedic actors in smaller roles and cameos (including Al Yankovic himself who appears as a record label exec), Daniel Radcliffe’s main co-star is Evan Rachel Wood, who appears to be having a great time playing an exaggerated version of Like a Virgin-era Madonna.  I primarily think of Evan Rachel Wood as being a dramatic actor, but here she gets to let rip with a full-on femme fatale take on the musical icon.  With its Madonna sub-plot, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story gets to play with the trope of the temptress who leads the gifted genius astray, but then takes it to a completely unexpected new level.

“…it’s an absolute delight…”

All in all, this is a film that on paper probably shouldn’t exist – it was made on a comparatively tiny budget of $8m and filmed in just 18 days, and the only studio that was prepared to finance it was The Roku Channel (meaning that you may have to put some effort in to figure out how you can actually stream this movie) – but I’m so glad that it does exist, because it’s an absolute delight.  And given how badly the masterpiece Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping flopped at the box office (only making $10m against its $20m budget), perhaps it’s a good thing that Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is able to simply exist on its own terms (on The Roku Channel) without the additional pressure of having to perform at the box office.

As with all comedies, this sense of humour inevitably won’t appeal to everyone – but if you’re a fan of Yankovic’s parody songs, or of straight-faced spoofs of musical biopics, or of Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker-style densely-packed dead-pan comedies, then you’ll find tonnes to enjoy here.  I laughed from beginning to end, and really hope that more people are able to discover this hidden gem on The Roku Channel for themselves.

Oh, and there’s even a very short end-credits scene too.