CONTAINS SPOILERS!!!
I have been looking forward to this film ever since I first heard it was being made. I am a fan of "Weird" Al Yankovic, and I am a fan of Daniel Radcliffe. Put the two together and I am very excited, so this might be a review through rose-tinted glasses! I'm also amazed that this film was shot in less than three weeks!
This was described as "the unexaggerated true story about the greatest musician of our time". It is a wild, bonkers and insane journey, which mirrors some of "Weird" Al's musical mentality. It follows the rise and demise of "Weird" Al (Daniel Radcliffe) and his accordion fame, how he wrote some of the biggest hits others would go on to parody, the "Yankovic Bump" that artists he parodied initially received after his songs became hits, and what a true action hero he was.
In true Daniel Radcliffe fashion, this film was released on an American streaming channel, and is not one of your mainstream releases. Dan enjoys these unusual films, and this is certainly that. The film is a real piss take of the biopic genre. It started out as a short starring Aaron Paul as Al by Funny or Die Productions, which Al himself appears in and much of the original short is transposed into the feature.
Dan's enthusiasm in the lead is fantastic to see, and it is even funnier to me because I know "Weird" Al's voice too well, and I know Dan's voice well enough, so when he starts singing and it is the real Al Yankovic's voice being heard... it just added another level just how silly this all was. Add that to the illegal "polka parties" and the drunken onstage "whipping it out" (if you know Al, you know what he whips out) and you just might have an inkling of what you are in for.
A huge array of people cameo in the film (I won't tell you them except for Al himself, go watch it!), but I thought it was really clever how the writers twisted the idea of Al going from parodying songs, to writing original songs which get parodied.
His relationship with Madonna (Evan Rachel Wood) leads to the inevitable one-man mission to rescue her from Pablo Escobar (Arturo Castro), which is probably a weirder sequence than his LSD trip Dr Demento (Rainn Wilson) puts him on. But the one key thing about Al that is kept in the film is the bright Hawaiian shirts. It wouldn't be a realistic "Weird" Al film without those.
There are elements that are true, or closer to the truth than the rest of the film. Al's career did start on Dr. Demento's radio show, and he did do one of his first recordings in a bathroom. From there, the film takes some cinematic licence.
The film's bonkers attitude towards not taking itself seriously is what makes it so great. I want to tell you each wild bit of the film that makes it so crazy and such a fun watch, but I would be telling you way too much. One thing I will tell you is to watch out for after the group leave the stage near the end of the film after performing "Armish Paradise". It made me laugh to also see Al remove fake skin used to cover his moustache.
Please, please watch this, bearing in mind that the real Alfred Yankovic is a tea-totaller and a vegetarian, has never dabbled in drugs and studied Architecture at University. He is also 6 feet tall (Dan Radcliffe is 5"5).
Directed by: Eric Appel
Written by: Al Yankovic, Eric Appel
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Evan Rachel Wood, Rainn Wilson, Toby Russ, Julianne Nicholson
Release Date: November 4, 2022
My Rating: 7/10
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