This article contains spoilers.
“Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” showcases a whole new side of parody-songwriter “Weird Al” Yankovic’s life from beginning to untimely end.
Released on Roku Nov. 4 and directed by Eric Appel, the film focuses on a semi-fictional retelling of Yankovic’s (Daniel Radcliffe) career. The film begins with his childhood fascination with variety radio host Dr. Demento (Rainn Wilson) and his early love for the accordion. As the film progresses, Yankovic rises to stardom with hits like “My Bologna,” “Another One Rides the Bus” and “Eat It,” but subsequently falls on hard times when he begins to date Madonna (Evan Rachel Wood) and turns to alcohol to cope with the fraught relationship with his father (Toby Huss). Eventually though, Yankovic reconciles with his father and reaches a new height in his career, and then he is assassinated.
At its core, this film is ridiculous. For example, Yankovic kills Pablo Escobar (Arturo Castro) and Madonna takes charge of Escobar’s drug cartel. Much of the mechanics of the plot and jokes rely on surprise and absurdism, which is expected in a film called “Weird.” This absurdism forces the viewer to laugh because it is so bizarre .
However, these silly moments could get old very fast if it were not for the genuinely witty moments that pepper this film. In the scene where Yankovic first approaches two music producers, Tony and Ben (Al Yankovic and Will Forte), they scoff at his work and Ben goes on a long rant about how...
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