![]() It requires retconning of all of pop music history for this movie to make that possible. In this version, "Weird Al" believes that only original songs will make people take him seriously as an artist. Demento ( Rainn Wilson) and during an animated acid trip writes a song called “Eat It,” which the real Yankovic and Will Forte (as smarmy executives) then confirm is “100% original.” The success turns this “Weird Al” into the most popular recording artist of all time, and People deems him the “Sexiest Man Alive.” When Oprah ( Quinta Brunson) interviews him, he wears mini platinum records around his neck.Ī plot line about this "Weird Al" wanting to then only write original songs is especially inspired, as Yankovic has countless gems that are highly literate parodies of a band's entire discography -they just don’t play on the radio. This fracture happens right about the time Yankovic is given guacamole laced with LSD by his real-life mentor Dr. It’s an imperfect foundation for the comedy: it inspires sweetness from young Al and a hilariously over-the-top reaction, as when the boy's first parody causes his father to yell, “What you’re doing is confusing, and evil!” But it also hews a little too close to “ Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story,” a previous music biopic comedy that dominated such tropes behind the Tortured Great Musician, which always starts with elusive parent validation.īut “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story" has many of its own ideas, breaking from the true story with zeal. His father ( Toby Huss) wants him to take on a life “at the factory” (a funny ongoing joke) and has forced Yankovic to become a closeted accordion player (his mother, played by a tender Julianne Nicholson, bought it for him secretly). ![]() This movie flourishes with absurd opposites take Yankovic’s loving parents, who are now imagined here as the bitter inspiration for his success. This version hilariously does, which itself is an act of preserving humility about who “Weird Al” truly is. The real “Weird Al” does not drink to excess, take hallucinogens, or rip off his Hawaiian shirts on stage to bear a six-pack. But the giddy thrill of "Weird" is the rollicking ways it takes to hit these points while spoofing the wholesomeness of Yankovic’s image. Yankovic did become a legendary accordion player thanks to a door-to-door salesman Madonna (played here by Evan Rachel Wood, relishing every bubble gum chew in a comically villainous role) did request that Yankovic parody her song "Like a Virgin,” leading to the birth of Yankovic’s “Like a Surgeon” Yankovic did record songs like “I Love Rocky Road,” “My Bologna,” and Michael Jackson parody “Eat It,” proving that parodies can be commercial in an evolving music business. The plotting of “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” is its own big joke, a fever dream by a self-deprecating entertainer looking into a funhouse mirror. Co-written by director Eric Appel and “Weird Al” Yankovic, “Weird” distills what has kept Yankovic a subversive force on the Billboard charts since the 1980s to create one of the funniest movies of the year. However serious you take that exclamation, it comes from a perfect centerpiece scene for “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story,” a pop music phantasmagoria that’s equally egoless and entertaining.
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