Parody films are far and in between. They are not a huge genre but a niche genre. There are a few good ones like the Naked Gun Series, Hot Shots, and Popstar Never Stop Never Stopping. Weird The Al Yankovic Story is a parody of a musical biopic similar to Yankovic’s career parodying popular music songs. Just like his career, this film is pretty funny considering how and what he became famous for.
Al Yankovic (Richard Aaron Anderson, David Bloom, Daniel Radcliffe) is a young man who is a bit awkward. He likes to play the accordion, not a lot of kids his age do this, and he parodies established popular songs and puts his own spin on them. People, including his father, Nick Yankovic (Toby Huss) don’t necessarily think this is a good hobby. Al thinks otherwise and goes to some music executives to sell his idea to them. He gets turned away straight away but doesn’t get discouraged. And keeps at it to his eventual success.
Besides those three actors as Yankovic, there were a lot of other cameos in the film. Conan O’Brien as Andy Warhol, Jorma Toccone as Pee Wee Herman was funny, and Jack Black as Wolfman Jack played a role in driving Yankovic’s career forward. Last but not least, Patton Oswalt was a heckler at a bar early on in the movie. This film was stacked with stars but the biggest star was Madonna played by Evan Rachel Wood.
Wood is uncanny as Madonna, who requests that Yankovic write her a song so she can get the so-called Yankovic bump. His star has risen so far that he actually falls in love with and starts to date, Madonna. He gets more than he bargained for as the relationship takes a turn for the worse. Wood is very good as Madonna though and they play this relationship up very nicely. It’s a bit exaggerated but it’s kind of funny in a way.
Radcliffe looks like Yankovic as an adult and that’s part of the charm of his performance. Along with him the rest of the makeup and hairstyling team do an exceptional job making these actors look like other celebrities. Also, the voice-over and lip-synching by Yankovic and Radcliffe were seamless. If I didn’t know any better I would swear it was Radcliffe as Yankovic singing all his popular parody songs.
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story was a fun ride. It had a lot of fun cameos of famous people played by other famous people and all the technical aspects were on point especially the hairstyling and makeup departments. The voice-over and sip synching were solid as well. Radcliffe was the standout as Yankovic. You could tell he was having a blast playing this role and the whole parody aspect was right up his alley. This was a fun parody biopic. And I think people will enjoy it.
4 stars
Dan Skip Allen
From the Fourth Row! 