Weird: The Al Yankovic Story

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story

Exploring every facet of ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic’s life, from his meteoric rise to fame with early hits like ‘Eat It’ and ‘Like a Surgeon’ to his torrid celebrity love affairs and famously depraved lifestyle, this biopic takes audiences on a truly unbelievable journey through Yankovic’s life and career, from gifted child prodigy to the greatest musical legend of all time.

  • Released:
  • Runtime: 120 minutes
  • Genre: Comedy, Drama, Music
  • Stars: Daniel Radcliffe, Evan Rachel Wood, Rainn Wilson, Toby Huss, Julianne Nicholson, Quinta Brunson, 'Weird Al' Yankovic, Will Forte, Patton Oswalt, Michael McKean, Dot-Marie Jones, Jorma Taccone, Demetri Martin, Dean Sharpe, Paul F. Tompkins, Scott Aukerman, Akiva Schaffer, Conan O'Brien, Emo Philips, Nina West, Jack Black, David Dastmalchian, Julie Chang, Josh Groban, Seth Green, Arturo Castro, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Diedrich Bader, Richard Aaron Anderson, David Bloom, Thomas Lennon, Johnny Pemberton, Jonah Ray, Jeremy Bolm, Jack Lancaster, Spencer Treat Clark, Tommy O'Brien, Jacob Lawrence Kreiss, Keanush Tafreshi, Andrew Steven Hernandez, Paloma Esparza Rabinov, Eric Appel, Panuvat Anthony Nanakornpanom, Constantine Rousouli, James Brown III, Rocky Abou-Sakher, Chris Ryan, Mike Escamilla, Chad Guerrero, Cesar Ramirez, Omar Estrada, Cesar Chavira, Jimmy Walker Jr., Trenyce, James Preston Rogers, William Guirola
  • Director: Eric Appel
 Comments
  • gaubitzerlena - 17 June 2024
    A parody of the life of a parodist.
    The film "Weird: The Al Yankovic Story", written and produced by Al Yankovic and Eric Appel, is in many ways a parody of Al Yankovic's life and success, but it is also a parody of traditional biopics.

    The audience follows the musician's life from his childhood up to his fictional death.

    I say 'fictional' death because, although Al dies at the end of the film, in reality, he is still very much alive and contributed in the making of this movie. He narrates parts of the story and plays a small supporting role as 'Tony', head of a record label. The beginning of the film is fast paced, rapidly dealing with some important events from his childhood and teenage years, to quickly arriving in Al's adult life within the first 20 minutes of the movie. After that the movie simply consist of partially made-up origin stories to his songs, creating absurd, exaggerated storylines which challenge reality.

    Daniel Radcliffe, who portrays Weird Al as an adult, gives an incredible performance, perfectly executing the over-exaggerated dramatic elements and comedic aspects of the movie. It is obvious, though, that in the moments where Daniel is supposed to sing Weird Al's songs, he is lip-syncing to a track of Al Yankovic's actual voice. This might seem odd, but I believe that it is a conscious choice, because the movie often blurs the lines between reality, fiction, and absurdity. Quick cuts and dramatic lighting mimic the style of various biopics and also music videos, enhancing the parody effect.

    Another example for the creation of fictional narratives, apart from the obvious lip-syncing, is Weird Al's relationship with Madonna. In real-life he only briefly met the popstar, who is played by Evan Rachel Wood in the film, but in the movie, they are in a romantic relationship for some time. Even though I understand that the film was never aiming for accurate representation of anything or anyone in order to parody other biopics, I did not particularly enjoy the way in which Madonna was portrayed. She is unnecessarily depicted as arrogant, manipulative, and selfish by only dating Al to convince him to write a cover for her song 'Like a Virgin'. In general, it must be noted that there are only two female main characters, Madonna, and Al Yankovic's mother, and I doubt that this movie would pass the Bechdel test.

    All in all, I appreciate the comedic and untraditional approach to a biopic; it is definitely a refreshing diversion from all of the seriousness portrayed in other biographical feature films. Making the biopic a parody also perfectly aligns with Weird Al Yankovic's actual career, which is composing parody versions of popular songs. However, I do have to add, that the over-exaggerated, comedic elements become a bit annoying throughout the movie and I quickly lost interest as the pace changes.
  • lantern4444 - 6 April 2024
    A Great Parody of the King of Parody
    This movie is an absolutely brilliant parody of Weird Al Yankovic's life. Whilst semi-biographical it is essentially the most weird, bizarre and entertaining movie you can find. I love how you cannot predict how his life continually takes the most comically bizarre turns involving the most famous people imaginable. It is great fun to try and recognize and imagine his connection to these eclectically strange people.

    This is one of best comical parodies you will ever come across. The acting of Daniel Radcliffe is so brilliant you can actually imagine Weird Al Yankovic in front of you. This is definitely a fun movie that you must take the time to watch.
  • colin_snutz - 28 December 2023
    A completely original bio-pic
    This is the greatest biopic to ever be made. Finally, an inside look at the legend, the myth, the man. And who better than ol' HP himself to make this story come alive! From all the behind the scenes coverage of the second rate entertainers that had the opportunity to bask in the shadow of Al, to the inspiring perseverance of a boy, who loved an accordion. This movie sets the stage for a generation of new Weirdos to rise and fight back against system of mediocrity and mondainess. This is a very personal telling of the trials and tribulations that created the hero we all needed, even if we didn't know it.
  • danielgroza - 27 December 2022
    The joke's on you
    "Weird: The Al Yankovic Story" is a scary movie.

    If you go into this movie without knowing anything about it and just assume that it's a biopic of the parody musician's life--like I did--then this movie will play you and make you huddle in the corner as you try to recover from yet another masterfully crafted twist. Touché!

    Director Eric Appel co-wrote the script with Weird Al himself and guess what? This is not a biopic but a parody of one--duh, Weird Al co-wrote this and he is known for parodies, go figure--but the way in which it transitions from fact to fiction is meticulous, surreal and slowly grinds the viewer. For all the jokes it contains, the most effective joke is the one which starts and ends with the movie, and that joke is the plot itself. That is the Joker-esque ground on which Yankovic builds everything else and elegantly blows this movie out of proportions--it's quite the experience.

    Initially, the movie starts with Weird Al as a young boy living with his parents. He has dreams of being an artist, but not just any artist--he wants to parody songs. His conservative father can't stand that, and demands that he joins him in working at "the factory". No one knows what they make there as the question is put several times, and the running gag here is how "the factory" is viewed as a template for the working class--it's a place of stability, but also a dead end. Al's father is so conservative, in fact, that he beats up a salesman for wanting to sell Yankovic his now trademark accordion. Al finally gets a reprieve from his parents when he escapes the house and goes to a house party with his friends and colleagues and it's... a polka party, and they love accordions.

    The genius of these jokes is in how they are written so that they are fake enough to be obvious they never happened, but not so disruptive as to make you believe that Yankovic is not telling the story of his life but just messing around. You might view them as comedic detours expected from someone like Weird Al Yankovic to place here and there while telling his story. But as the movie goes on, you realize this was only him setting up the meta-joke that is the plot.

    The movie starts to give more and more doubt as to its factual validity as it goes on and by the time you realize you've been played, you're not angry, but rather amazed at how subtle its fall into the ridiculous is. It blows up at an exponential rate, sometimes being too stupid for its own good, but always funny. One of its many tropes is the way writers Appel & Yankovic present the sources of inspiration for his parodies. The movie goes into moments of surrealism that go seemingly nowhere only for them to resolve with yet another explanation on how he got to write another song. The reason these moments are so unpredictable even though they happen again and again is because they start in places which are seemingly completely disconnected from everything. The way in which Yankovic reaches his target is through literally interpretation and a dose of insanity.

    If I was a bit too generic, is because I want you to experience this movie yourself with knowing as little about it as possible. But if you got to this point in the review, then you already know more than I did before I watched it. But trust me, there is still plenty of things to see... unimaginable things.
  • FixedYourEnding - 11 December 2022
    A parody of a parody of a parody
    This movie is defined as a biopics satire. Weird Al is great, his parodic songs are second to none, and every time one of them appeared on screen you get a moment of joy. You either guess it right before it's coming, or in case you missed it, you think "oh right, how did I miss that". If you are not familiar, or not a fan of "Weird" Al, I think you would not enjoy this movie, this is definitely aimed at fans and people that know all his songs by heart, even maybe even attended one of his shows.

    The plot is largely fictional, there are more uncommon things there to real life, than actually life events, which feels like Al did not really open up and instead chose to do a parody of a parody. He invites as many celebrities and cameos that he could, and even put himself as a cameo as an assistant music producer with a short temper. I have to say that part it was too much for me and I could not enjoy the fact that we, as viewers, are fed constant nonsense , even around real characters like Dr. Demento (played by "the office" Rainn Wilson) you never know if any of these events are even close to real. I know it was done on purpose, but it is so all over the place that it was not enjoyable for me.

    Speaking of acting, it's a B-rated comedy and really anybody can deliver those lines. Daniel Radcliff is ok, nothing brilliant, so goes to most of the other actors. Look, Weird Al is very talented and I'm still a fan, but this movie gets the thumbs up only because of the music, the "movie" part here is really a filler and giving it 10/10 is dishonest at best.

    My exact score: 64 / 100 and that's really mostly based on the soundtrack and good ole' 80's memories. Btw- There is even a new song written especially for the credits, alas, it's not that funny. Sorry, Al, I still love you, but I'll watch UHF again way before I watch this movie again.
  • lamc-74537 - 27 November 2022
    I want most of this time back
    This could've been a short Funny or Die film at best and that would've been 100% fine, but it was an hour and 20 mins of time that I want back. It was awesome to see Weird Al play the record executive who said he'd never make it...and having lived through the 80's, and knowing the real story of seeing his popularity, it was fun to relive the songs and see the characters of that time. The actor playing Madonna was spot on. Made me miss the awesomeness of the 80's. Overall, the backstory of Weird Al of this was good, but bottom line is that this movie really could've been a 20 minute short film.
  • shariemichalec - 20 November 2022
    If you're a Weird Al fan you will love it
    I don't just mean someone who listened to a handful of his greatest hits and thought they were funny. But for the ones who have seen him live, or more specifically if you love the song Albuquerque then this is for you. Like the song, it's one huge hypothetical and ridiculous story and it is absolutely hilarious. I knew this movie would be good, but it fully exceeded expectations. Daniel Radcliffe was awesome, and there were so many other actors I wasn't expecting to see.

    Also, another great thing about this movie is that if you filter to all the bad reviews - it creates a handy list of people to avoid in life.