Daniel Radcliffe’s career has exploded over the past few years with a number of excitingly odd niche and indie titles. Movies such as Guns Akimbo and Swiss Army Man were perfect examples of how open he has become to attaching his name to obscure pictures. Oddly enough – and appropriately enough – Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is his best weird adventure yet.
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is the totally, 100 percent autobiographical movie based on parody singer “Weird” Al Yankovic.
The singer himself plays a fairly large part in the movie, but that’s probably about as real as the film gets.
Somehow, Weird confidently jumps the shark into uncharted waters and looks good doing it. It not only includes drug-fuelled gun fights in a rainforest, a bucket list of cameos from Hollywood’s finest, and Madonna becoming the music industry’s version of Big Boss, but – somehow – it all… works?
Weird is hysterically funny. Weird Al himself wrote the movie alongside director, Eric Appel, and you can feel his unique brand of humour etched within every word of the script. There were few moments when I was not guffawing with unbridled laughter over his comedy genius or the absolute absurdity of the narrative.
Weird’s story is – I cannot overstate it – completely bonkers. Once the film makes it clear that the real-life rules have gone out the window, it just continues to get funnier as the scenes roll in.
However, none of this would have worked without Radcliffe at the forefront of the picture.
It’s no surprise that Radcliffe is a brilliant actor, but the lengths to which he really commits to being a “funnyman” are commendable. He goes the whole nine yards and his effort pays off. There’s a physicality and absurdness to his performance that pushes his performance from parody to emulation.
In fact, the most surprising thing about his performance was finding out he is quite happy to take pot-shots at himself (who knew?) by cutting into that fourth wall. It was great to see, and viewers will no doubt lap up the creativity and effortlessness he boasts through every second of the picture.
Beside Radcliffe is Evan Rachel Wood who plays Madonna – and she is a borderline scene-stealer. Her ridiculous dialogue combined with her stunning costume and insane aesthetic build yet another really endearing and hilarious character. Together, these two actors create a wonderful double act.
The only disappointing aspects present in Weird: The Al Yankovic Story are echoed in the music of Weird Al himself.
A lot of the time, the film does not know when to stop. The comedy is, without question, hilarious, but some of the gags seem to go on far too long. Sure, a long pause or bleak stare does some heavy lifting, but there were a few scenes where a shorter ending would have been plenty.
At just over 108 minutes, Weird is not a long movie by any stretch, but it does feel like it. Especially in the final crescendos of the thickening plot. Cutting off ten minutes or so would improve the picture as a whole dramatically.
Regardless of its bloated third act, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is a brilliantly funny adventure. You’ve never seen a movie quite this weird before.
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story hits the Roku channel tomorrow.
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