Daniel Radcliffe in “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.”
Aaron Epstein | Roku | TNS
You cannot accuse “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” of taking itself too seriously.
You can accuse it of things — such as wearing out its welcome roughly somewhere in the middle, after a largely entertaining start — but not of lacking a sense of humor.
Available on the Roku Channel after its debut in September at the Toronto International Film Festival, “Weird” is, at least according to its production notes, “the unexaggerated true story about the greatest musician and sex symbol of our time.”
If you’re not in on the joke as early as when a young Al’s father, Nick (Toby Huss) nearly beats to death a door-to-door salesman (Thomas Lennon) who introduces the boy to the accordion, you will be soon after — and long before pop-music icon Madonna (Evan Rachel Wood) becomes smitten with a now successful “Weird Al.”
It is fitting that a biopic about the king of the song parody would itself be a parody of a biopic, one that plays at times like a jukebox musical and at one stretch like a satire of a “Rambo”-like action movie (for some reason).
After a couple of time jumps, Al is portrayed for the majority of the movie by “Harry Potter” star Daniel Radcliffe, plenty convincing in Yankovic’s familiar hair and glasses. Finally away from his oppressive pops, Al is encouraged by roommates Jim (Jack Lancaster), Steve (Spencer Treat Clark) and Bermuda (Tommy O’Brien) to pursue his dream of stardom through parody songs.
When Al performs at a small music venue he deems a “whiskey-and-heroin place” after sizing up the crowd and has trouble winning them over early on with “I Love Rocky Road” — his pro-ice cream parody of Joan Jett & The Blackhearts anthem “I Love Rock”n’ Roll” — his buddies man instruments and help him turn the tide. (Al says he had no idea they could play, and one tells him it didn’t seem pertinent until this moment.)
Al finds a less-receptive audience with two record company executive brothers in one of the movie’s most enjoyable scenes. Neither has any interest in giving Al a record deal, but as Ben Scotti (Will Forte) lays into him for being incredibly untalented and even bad-looking, Tony Scotti — played by Jankovic himself — winces noticeably.
Although the Funny or Die co-production is directed and co-written by Eric Appel, who also helmed Funny or Die’s similar short film about a decade ago, Yankovic’s fingerprints are all over this thing as its co-writer. (Yankovic has previous big-screen experience via 1989’s “UHF,” which he starred in and co-wrote.)
Along with solid work from Radcliffe, whose non-“Potter” credits include 2016’s “Swiss Army Man,” “Weird” gets a big lift from Wood (“Westworld,” “Across the Universe”) as Madonna. Hoping for the “Yankovic bump” — an increase in record sales for an artist when Al skewers a song of theirs — she arrives at his front door. A passionate romance quickly blossoms.
This is about as believable as the idea of Yankovic having a lengthy residency at New York’s famed Madison Square Garden, as he does in the movie, but it’s plenty of fun.
However, the movie pretty much falls off a cliff once it leans into the joke that Al’s “Eat It” is not a parody but a completely original song. When pop star Michael Jackson, um, parodies it with “Beat It,” Al spirals out of control, not believing an artist would do something like this. (Oh, the irony!)
We then get the typical biopic fare of an artist abusing booze and treating those around him like trash. Well, that doesn’t include Madonna, the most important thing in his life if, perhaps, not the best of influences.
Other than that, “Weird” is largely a stream of more, well, weird cameos, including music star Josh Groban as a waiter, “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda as a doctor, actor-comedian Patton Oswalt as a heckler and actor-musician Jack Black as famed disc jockey Wolfman Jack.
More than a cameo, Rainn Wilson’s rather uninteresting portrayal of odd radio personality Yankovic mentor Dr. Demento is fine but not what you’d hope.
Also of note: Julianne Nicholson portrays Al’s mom, hot on the heels of playing Marilyn Monroe’s mother in the recent Netflix release “Blonde.” That is quite a range of celebrity motherdom.
We can assume only that this movie will delight hardcore “Weird Al” fans and, hey, great for them.
However, even if Yankovic’s music may once have been a part of your life, sitting through all of “Weird” is a bit of a task. It’s kind of like being faced with listening to a long playlist of his songs now — fun at first, but soon enough you’ll wish you were doing something else.
‘WEIRD: THE AL YANKOVIC STORY’
2 stars (out of 4)
No MPAA rating (contains a fair amount of adult content)
Running time: 1:48
How to watch: On Roku Channel (available on Roku streaming devices and Roku TV)
