“Weird: The Al Yankovic Story,” which dropped Nov. 4 on the Roku Channel, is packed full of laughs for everyone, even though its plot loses steam halfway through.
Daniel Radcliffe and Evan Rachel Wood pulled off convincing performances of both Yankovic and Madonna; their acting through the highly fictionalized scenarios made jokes so much easier to land, like Al’s rock star phase and his fabricated relationship with Madonna.
Eric Appel and Yankovic wrote a parody of the rock star biopic with plot points that stayed mostly true to their “Funny or Die” three-minute fake trailer in 2010.
The movie’s premiere was met with immediate positive reception, and it’s easy to see why.
The writers used the film’s less-than-two-hour runtime and its talented cast well — filling it with clever bits, cameos and callbacks. Appel and Yankovic translated a short funny skit into an even funnier movie, which is no small comedy feat.
However, some jokes, like the ironic portrayal of Madonna as a manipulative, murderous femme fatale, get a little old, even if it is playing on the biopic genre’s misogynistic stereotype.
The movie starts strong with jokes that mock the genre’s convention of relentless childhood adversity and ridiculously suppressive home lives.
Any interest Al showed in music or parodies was met with his mother’s pleas to stop doing what he loves and his father’s over-the-top reprimands.
Actor David Bloom plays the awkward, impassioned teenage Al well as he faces his father’s wrath after he gets busted for showing off his closeted accordion skills at a polka party.
His father finds and destroys his accordion — “the devil’s squeezebox” — that Al had been secretly practicing in the closet, and Al vows to become an accordion star “in an extremely specific genre of music.”
In a clunky and sudden transition, Yankovic’s voice-over brings the audience into a flashback with a slightly older, more confident Al, played by Radcliffe, who shares an apartment with three goofy friends who help him turn The Knack’s “My Sharona” into “My Bologna.”
A cynical record executive, played by Yankovic, turns Al down. Al meets Dr. Demento, who invites him to a star-studded pool party where he has to prove his lyrical prowess with an on-the-spot cover of “Another One Bites the Dust.”
This sequence of events is hilarious but left me wanting more from the middle of the film, which focused way too much on Madonna as Al’s conniving girlfriend, who tries to use his parodies to sell more albums.
Playing on Yankovic’s real-life sobriety and wholesome personality, Madonna, one of the movie’s two female characters, turns movie Al into an alcoholic asshole, leading to a drunk “Like a Surgeon” performance.
Later, Pablo Escobar kidnaps Madonna to attract Al to his birthday party and unfortunately, a too-long and somehow too-violent, murderous rampage through the jungle ensues.
The ending of the movie, though dramatic, feels like a relief. It wraps up the movie in unexpected ways and has one of its funniest bits. Despite its surprise, the callbacks at the end make the middle a little more worth the watch.
Overall, the movie has some hit-or-miss jokes, but it’s always silly — staying true to the heart of Yankovic’s discography.
“Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” is available for streaming on the Roku Channel.