Weird: The Al Yankovic Story

by Julian Spivey

Photo: Roku

Director: Eric Appel
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Evan Rachel Wood & Rainn Wilson 
Rated: Not Rated (But It's Basically PG-13) 
Runtime: 1 hour & 48 minutes 

Weird Al Yankovic is the king of parody. So, it’s probably not best to go into “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story,” the unexaggerated true story about the greatest musician of our time, thinking you’re going to get anything but a parody.

I can see why this might bum some people out. Yankovic is an interesting fellow, and I wouldn’t mind seeing a truthful biopic about him, but it wouldn’t quite ring true to the man. If you want an actual history of Yankovic’s life and career I recommend perusing his Wikipedia page or YouTube-ing the old VH1 “Behind the Music” episode about him.

“Weird: The Al Yankovic Story,” a Roku Original, which is almost funny in its own right, is based on the Funny or Die fake trailer for such a biopic from 2010, which featured Aaron Paul as Yankovic, Olivia Wilde as Madonna, Mary Steenburgen and Gary Cole as Yankovic’s parents and Patton Oswalt as Yankovic’s mentor Dr. Demento. Eric Appel, the writer and producer of that sketch, has fleshed out the story to a feature-length film, with the help of Yankovic himself co-writing the script.

The characters have been recast. Daniel Radcliffe is now Yankovic, and he goes all out in the role of the pop culture parody master. Evan Rachel Wood takes on the role of pop sensation and Weird Al’s love interest Madonna and Rainn Wilson takes the role of Dr. Demento. Toby Huss portrays Al’s father Nick Yankovic and Emmy-winner Julianne Nicholson portrays Al’s mother Mary.

Musical biopics have been parodied famously before with Jake Kasdan and Judd Apatow’s 2007 comedy “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story,” so ‘Weird’ isn’t really breaking any new ground, but that doesn’t harsh the vibe of it any. ‘Weird’ is a lot of fun, as one might expect for a biopic about Weird Al Yankovic.

Simply put, if you love – or even just like – Weird Al Yankovic you’re going to enjoy “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.” To borrow a song title from Yankovic, the movie dares to be stupid. And it works in most facets.

You can tell the cast is having a blast with this one. Radcliffe goes all out as Yankovic, with the character starting as a nerdy kid just wanting to add new words to old songs and play the accordion and ending up a wild teen busted at a polka party. While living with roommates, who would later be his band, as a young adult, he hears The Knack’s “My Sharona” on the radio while making bologna sandwiches and the rest is history.

Eventually, he became the biggest pop star in the world going from parodies to writing original songs like “Eat It,” which fellow pop star Michael Jackson would rip off for “Beat It,” much to Yankovic’s irritation. Enters into a white-hot relationship with Madonna, who’s dying to be parodied by him – even if he doesn’t do that stuff anymore, becomes addicted to the wildness of the star life with alcohol and drugs, almost dies in a car accident and has to fight drug kingpin Pablo Escobar to recapture Madonna before losing Madonna ultimately to the drug lord lifestyle.

The highlight of ‘Weird’ for me was all of the wonderful cameos in the film, with the first two memorable ones being the real-life Yankovic himself and Will Forte as record executives. The best scene in the entire film is the pool party at Dr. Demento’s place where Demento’s rival DJ Wolfman Jack, played by Jack Black, shows up daring Yankovic to prove himself on the spot – which he does by spoofing Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust” as “Another One Rides the Bus.” This scene is filled with great freaks of the era like Tiny Tim, Pee Wee Herman, Divine, Frank Zappa, Alice Cooper and more. My particular favorite is Conan O’Brien as Andy Warhol. Lin-Manuel Miranda as the doctor who saves Yankovic’s life is a nice cameo too, as well as Quinta Brunson as Oprah Winfrey.

The one negative aspect of ‘Weird’ is that it runs a bit too long, even at only one hour and 48 minutes. When you have a movie that’s essentially one joke repeated for the duration of the film this is an easy thing to happen. I feel like had they cut it down to a smooth 90 minutes it would’ve been better off, but I still had quite a good time watching it.

“Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” can be seen on the Roku Channel App, which you don’t necessarily need a Roku device to view. I was able to download the application on my Amazon Fire TV Stick and I’m sure there are other devices on which it’s available, as well.