Al Yankovic (Daniel Radcliff) is a curly-haired, awkward kid with no friends and no excitement in his life. Until one day when he ends up at a turnt-up polka party where he wow’s the party crowd by shredding on the accordion. His parents, Mary and Nick Yankovic (Julianne Nicholson and Toby Huss), disapprove of him playing, and his relationship with them becomes strained.
As he grows older, he moves away and lives with his four friends, who encourage him to find inspiration for his music after Al claims to love taking well-known songs and changing the words–thus making parody records. He records a song called “My Bologna” and sends it to the Captain Buffon radio show. They love it and play it on heavy rotation, but not everyone is on board. He talks to record execs the Scotty Brothers, but his music and looks get trashed.
He’s encouraged to perform again at a dive bar. In a scene reminiscent of Spongebob at the Salty Splatoon, Al performs his next parody, “I Love Rocky Road,” and the crowd goes wild. Because of his stellar performance, he meets Dr. Demento (Rainn Wilson), who offers to introduce him to some famous folks at his place. All kinds of people (those dead and alive) are at Demento’s pool party, Elton John, Frank Zappa, Alice Cooper, Andy Warhol, and Salvatore Dali, just to name a few. This is the moment he asserts himself as a certified star, hell-bent on changing the world of music.
Cameos–so many cameos. No point in listing who in this, but some cameos surprised me, which is rare (for me). How come films don’t do this as much anymore? Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is a parody of a parody. Of course, Yankovic’s career never went in the movie’s direction, it’s self-aware to the point that it might as well be breaking the fourth wall. Weird Al had me in its clutches until about 30-minutes in, where things derail even beyond the film’s standards.
Tonally, it’s as weird as its namesake, and the issues begin when Madonna (played by Evan Rachel Wood) shows up. Pablo Escobar? Drug cartel? Assassinations? Eric Appel and ‘Weird Al’ Yankvoic’s script sacrifices comedy for abject silliness and stereotypes, which deflects from the funny elements. As the film continued, the laughs became less and less because the film became darker in nature, derailing the story and turning into a different film, only to return to form 20 minutes before the Al Yankovic Story was over.
Most biopics are bleak and joyless. At least Appel wants to have some fun. You don’t get a real sense of truth about Weird Al’s rise to fame, but there is some commentary about the pressures of carving a niche within a strict music industry and how fame can turn people into ego-maniacs. Even if the film purports Weird Al’s career as one giant joke, one thing about him is he bulldozed through the music world with reckless abandon, and he did what he wanted to do on his terms. There is no denying that his parody songs impacted the culture. When the name ‘Weird’ Al Yankovic comes up in conversation, people know who that is without having to second guess. Just because his music was all parody, it didn’t mean you couldn’t dance and sing along to it.
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