“Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” Review
Daniel Radcliffe stars as Weird Al Yankovic, the nerdy, accordion-playing, master of satire in “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” which is currently available for streaming on The Roku Channel.
If you grew up as a nerdy kid, like myself, you no doubt fell in love with the music of Weird Al Yankovic. With his brilliant parodies of popular hits, his original compositions and a unique personality that has never gone out of style, Yankovic is an amazing artist. However, I never thought in a million years that he would get the biopic treatment reserved for musicians like Freddie Mercury, Elton John, Ray Charles and Johnny Cash. In fact, neither did anyone else.
In 2010, Funny or Die released a fake trailer for a Weird Al biopic that got a lot of laughs and the artist it was based on would play the trailer as part of his live shows. After much encouragement, Yankovic has reunited with Eric Appel, the director of the original Funny or Die video, to make “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” which is not only a marvelous film but is easily one of the best comedies I’ve seen all year.
Based on an amazing life, the film follows Al Yankovic (Daniel Radcliffe) as he pursues his love of accordions, music and, most importantly, writing funny lyrics to someone else’s song. With his passion and the help of a few friends, Yankovic embraces the weird side of himself and undergoes an odyssey of self-discovery, addiction and fighting the drug cartels of Pablo Escobar. Yes, that’s actually in the film.
As many are probably aware, the film doesn’t accurately depict the life story of Weird Al Yankovic. He’s made it a goal to abstain from swearing, drinking and drugs, has never gone on a jungle mission to take out drug lords and never had a romantic relationship with Madonna (Evan Rachel Wood). But accuracy is not what the film is striving for. It’s striving to be a deeply funny parody of the music biopic which is a massive draw at the box office as films like “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Straight Outta Compton,” “Rocketman” and “Elvis” have shown. On this front, it succeeds.
So much of what makes this film great comes from Eric Appel’s insane direction and the screenplay he co-wrote with Yankovic. By focusing on comedy and seeing how insane this movie can become, they make a film that is terrible as a factual story but brilliant as a loving parody and an entertaining film. Every few minutes something crazy happens and just when you think that the film can’t get any crazier, it tops itself.
Alongside Daniel Radcliffe (Right), Evan Rachel Wood stars as Madonna who desperately wants a parody of her hit single “Like a Virgin” to make it even more of a sensation.
As Weird Al, Daniel Radcliffe is spot-on and I am loving him more and more with each new film I see starring him. I love the “Harry Potter” franchise but I am sick of hearing people say that is what Daniel Radcliffe is best at. Don’t get me wrong, his eight performances as The Boy Who Lived are amazing but he has already outdone them many times over with more adventurous roles in films like “The F Word,” “Kill Your Darlings” and “Swiss Army Man.”
While not an exact doppelganger, Radcliffe perfectly embodies Yankovic’s spirit which is what good biopics should focus on. Sure it’s nice when the actors look more like the person they’re playing and actors like Rami Malek, Val Kilmer, Austin Butler and Sissy Spacek have been able to look and act convincingly as famous musicians. However, it’s capturing the essence of a person that should be strived for and Radcliffe has gone the distance. He takes everything so seriously and his straight-forward attitude towards the craziness of the story is what makes every minute of this film so damn funny.
Alongside Radcliffe is an amazing cast of celebrity cameos and appearances that I dare not spoil. Let’s just say that the first one floored me with laughter and it only got better. Other big names in the film include Rainn Wilson as Dr. Demento, a disc jockey and Weird Al’s manager, whose comedic talent is well used and who breaks the stereotype of piece-of-shit managers in rock biopics. I knew there had to be one that actually cared about their artist.
But the actor who really stands out and rivals Radcliffe is Evan Rachel Wood who is fantastic as Madonna. While, in real life, Madonna and Weird Al were friends and Madonna supported Yankovic’s desire to parody “Like a Virgin.” In the film, Madonna is a conniving manipulator who wants to seduce Yankovic so that he’ll parody her song and its popularity will make her record sales even bigger. While this might seem like an unflattering portrait of one of the greatest pop artists of all time, it’s actually quite loving because of how funny and over-the-top it is. Wood is magnetic and my only regret is that she didn’t get to sing in the film. If you’ve seen “Across The Universe” you know that Wood’s voice is amazing.
While I wish I could go on about how so many of the comedic moments had me crying from laughter, I think it’s best that you just go to your smart tv, pull up the Roku Channel and let them take you by surprise.
“Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” is a joke. An amazing, cleverly written, brilliantly performed joke that gets funnier the more you hear it. From the over-the-top story to the thoughtful satire of music biopics to the fact that it was released on Roku instead of a more mainstream streaming service like Netflix, it’s the perfect film to encapsulate the energy of the world’s most famous nerdy rocker with an accordion.
