Weird: The Al Yankovic Story

dir: Eric Appel

2022

Somedays I’ll take ‘reasonably fun’ over flat out hilarious. And this is fun and silly, and so it should be.

It purports to be a biopic of Weird Al Yankovic, but I’m pretty sure, other than the inclusion of a character called Al Yankovic and the inclusion of many of his songs, none of this really pretends to be about his actual life.

You can look at it two ways (at least, I mean, you’re free to look at it from thousands of perspectives if you choose); In wanting to parody the whole biopic format of famous musicians, they do a parody of a parody, closer to Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story rather than Walk the Line, The Johnny Cash story, a film that had Reese Witherspoon playing June Carter Cash actually saying to people “You boys ain’t Walking the Line”.

Which one is the parody, I ask you. Anyway, the other way to look at it is that Al Yankovic the man is not really the kind of person whose life would make for interesting tabloid or trashy biopic fodder. Regardless or despite his success infecting our brains with his catchy parodies in the 80s and 90s, he never let that ruin him the way money and fame, or the pursuit of such, have ruined countless others. At the peak of his success he got married, he’s a Christian, he’s never been a drinker…so that’s about it.

For him and for the screenwriters here, it’s far more entertaining to create an alternative history version of both Earth history and the history of Yankovic’s life and untimely death (he’s still alive, I assure you), one which only occasionally connects with actual world history.

I say this knowing full well that the array of comedians, hacks and actors happy to have tiny cameos in the flick are probably happy to do so out of a) love of Al Yankovic or b) love of attaching themselves remora-like to anything that will see their mugs appear onscreen, but it’s great to see all these shmucks in one place, playing other shmucks of the 80s. There are some entirely surreal scenes where moderately famous stand-ups are playing moderately famous B and C listers of the past. If you know who they are and who’s they’re playing, it’s mildly amusing.

If you have no idea who they are, or who they’re playing (ie. by some unlikely sequence of events you are under 30 and you are somehow reading one of my reviews as well), it will mean nothing, and you’re probably only watching it because you love the Harry Potter books or movies so much you see Daniel Radcliffe in every single thing he’s in.

And what’s it like watching Radcliffe playing Weird Al? He’s great! Honestly, he does really well with this strange one-note cartoonish representation. He’s game for anything, he has a surreal wig and moustache combination, and he throws himself into the bizarre role with complete abandon.

And even with the tongue-in-cheek moments of excess and abandonment (scenes of violence and drug use that definitely never happened), at no stage does Radcliffe diminish the aura of inherent niceness and oddness that exudes from the character of Al Yankovic. I think it honours the person, kinda, in a way that he was never going to be otherwise honoured.

When you think about it, even if he came from a long list of satirical songwriters and parodists like um, that guy, and that other guy, Weird Al achieved something really strange that no-one else got as famous for at that time, and definitely not now (due to there being no money in music unless you’re getting a billion streams a day or views on Youtube). He made a career out of playing other people’s music and changing the lyrics a lot or a little, with song titles often changed by only one word. I mean, what? How? You watch it play out in the movie and you think, perhaps a bit unkindly “How did this happen? Were we so starved for humour and music, both in the same place at the same time?”

I don’t honestly know how making parody songs like “Amish Paradise” subbing for “Gangsta’s Paradise”, or “Smells Like Nirvana” parodying “Smells Like Teen Spirit” ever actually worked, or earned Weird Al any money. Surely any money would have to go to the writer of the original song?

I dunno, anyway, as a kid when I heard “Eat It” or “Fat” instead of “Bad” by notorious pedophile and King of Pop Michael Jackson, I probably thought they were the funniest things I’d ever seen in my life up to that point. I was but a young innocent child in those days, well before life itself

Now I watch this stuff, and with all the affection in the world for what he created, and I think “how the fuck did any of this happen?”

The film never explains it, but then how could it? It alludes to parts of his life that ring true, like how he idolised Dr Demento (Rainn Wilson), who was a famous DJ, back when there were only 3 or so DJs total, who kinda sorta gets him onto the airwaves. There was a window, at least, of time where the world seemed to desperately need him and want his stuff, and it worked, probably much to his relief.

Even if none of it makes sense, I guess we’re meant to see the pinnacle of his success being that Madonna falls in love with him, totally and utterly, back when she’s in the Desperately Seeking Susan era of her career. Expertly played by Evan Rachel Wood, she keeps assuring Al that she’s not into him because she needs him to write a parody of one of her songs in order to truly take the world by storm, no, she’s loves him for his moustache and his accordion playing.

And who could blame her? Of course it’s silly, with everything that goes on, but I enjoyed it (enough). It’s a funny, very tiny, very minor kind of niche experience, and it works to remind us of a nice guy who just wanted to be funny and who never wanted to hurt people’s feelings with his parodies, including the people he was parodying.

And sure he has a creepy cameo in his own film, but it just goes to show what a great Weird Al Daniel Radcliffe could have been. If only he’d lived…

7 times he’s almost better than the real thing out of 10

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“Honey, I know it's hard to hear this, but your dad and I had a long talk and we agreed it would be best for all of us if you would just stop being who you are and doing the things you love.” – supportive parents make all the difference - Weird: The Al Yankovic Story