Mary: We are here today to talk about our best friends, Weird Al Yankovic and Daniel Radcliffe. JK, we are here to talk about Weird:The Al Yankovic Story, a parody biopic starring Radcliffe and focusing on Yankovic’s life – sort of. I know that both of us have been hyped about this movie for a long time – years?? Hard to say – so what drew you to it? Did you listen to Weird Al growing up? Obviously Daniel Radcliffe was a draw!
Emily: Yeah, I definitely listened to Weird Al growing up. And I remember seeing music videos like “Eat It” on, like, VH1 when I was a kid. So I was interested in the Weird Al part of the movie (okay, the whole movie is Werid Al so it’s not just a “part,”’ but you get me). But I mean, for me the big draw is always Daniel Radcliffe. I’ve been pretty open about the fact that Daniel Radcliffe is basically my favorite celebrity. I genuinely love the energy he brings to every project, and he’s really good at frenetic roles where he gets to play up the comedy. So even though he doesn’t look anything like Weird Al, I thought it was perfect that he was playing this role. And for me, it made a huge difference. This wasn’t a “Weird Al” movie for me. This was a “Daniel Radcliffe playing Weird Al'' movie for me.
Mary: Some of my first memories of music involve listening to Weird Al cassettes with my dad. I probably learned every word to his first few albums, and I watched all his music videos. To me, the story of Weird Al was kind of like a mythology – in no small part because he painted it that way himself. While I’m not as big of a fan of some of his newer stuff, there’s absolutely no denying that Weird Al is a talented musician, much more than a lot of folks give him credit for. With such a fondness for the man, the myth, the legend (and a soft spot for Daniel Radcliffe, too), I had to watch Weird. It did not disappoint.
Emily: I agree. This movie was really fun. And unsurprisingly, Daniel Radcliffe was the best part to me. I also enjoyed the multitudes of cameos. Right at the top, we get a cameo from Lin Manuel Miranda as the surgeon. Which was your favorite of the cameos?
This is a different Weird Al than you’re used to.
Mary: There were so many good cameos in the party scene, where Al goes to Dr. Demento’s house and meets basically every celebrity of the time. Seeing Paul F. Tompkins as Gallagher was the cherry on top of the cameo cake for me. I also loved Emo Phillips as Salvador Dali and Conan O’Brien as Andy Warhol. So, so good. That entire scene is a who’s who of comedians.
Maybe something we should address about Weird up front is how extreme the parody is. It’s ostensibly a biopic of Weird Al, who even gives a message at the beginning of the film assuring viewers that everything they’re about to see is 100% true.
Emily: Yeah, I feel like none of this was remotely true. Some of it is obviously not true. For instance, the movie suggests Weird Al wrote “Eat It” and then Michael Jackson parodied HIS song and wrote “Beat It.”
Mary: I laughed SO much at that. It’s true enough that it tracks with Weird Al’s actual life to some extent. Like, he really did get his first accordion from a traveling salesman, and he really did record his first songs in a bathroom – but all of the details around those events are played up to a hilarious extent. Obviously his father did not beat up the accordion salesman. Obviously Weird Al did not inspire Madonna to become a drug lord. That said, a lot of the broad structure of what happened was true.
I think it was particularly interesting how they used the characters of Al’s parents to bring a narrative together. The exile/reunion arc Al has with them pushes the narrative forward and serves as inspiration for a lot of his songs in-movie. It was almost the most parody-like aspect of the film, to me, because in real life his parents were actually very supportive, no matter what turns his music career took. But family narratives are such a huge part of biopics, so making Al’s relationship with his parents so dramatic helped emphasize that this movie is indeed a parody of the biggest parody artist.
Emily: I will admit I don’t know very much about the actual Weird Al’s history. Like I said, I’m a casual Weird Al listener, and I am here for Daniel Radcliffe. But that’s interesting. I wonder what his parents would think of this movie (they are sadly no longer with us, so they can’t tell us).
Mary: We’ve already touched on it a little, but the reason that this movie works at all is because of Daniel Radcliffe. He IS this movie. Yes, he doesn’t look like Weird Al at all, but that’s the point. He’s an over the top, rock and roll, hard partying version of Weird Al, and I think that he doesn’t look like Al is all part of the parody performance. Radcliffe’s energy is at 100% the whole movie, and he seems to have treated this role with the utmost respect. I think that to make a good comedy, you actually have to take things kind of seriously. Radcliffe fully committed to this part, and if he had let that commitment waver for even a second it would’ve fallen apart, but it didn’t.
Emily: This is one of the many things I love about Daniel Radcliffe. He always dedicates himself fully to every role, no matter how bizarre it is. This depiction of Weird Al is over the top, but for Daniel in this role, it’s all very real. He’s selling it. Which makes it so much funnier.
Mary: Strangely, the character of Weird Al means that Al is the straight man in his own story. It was just absolutely over the top parody.
Emily: Of course, I was happy to see Weird Al played a role in his own biopic. Weird Al is Tony Scotti, a record producer who did work with Weird Al in real life.
Mary: Maybe one of the wildest parts of the plot was the idea that Madonna wanted to date Al so he would parody her song and she’d get famous. Her love for him is fake – at least to begin with – and the two have a sexy, drug fueled relationship. Obviously, this didn’t happen, but it made the biopic seem more… well… like a biopic! What did you think about the ~romance~ in the plot?
Emily: It was… fine? I like Evan Rachel Wood and she was good in this role. The movie needed a villain and it was an interesting villain choice. What was really funny was how quickly the two “fall in love.” The movie makes it seem like Madonna and Weird Al have developed their relationship over a long period of time, but then we discover that it’s only been a matter of hours.
Honestly, I’m more interested in what Madonna thinks of this portrayal. It’s definitely not in line with the image she has created for herself now, and I read that she did not officially give permission for the film to use her likeness in the movie. And apparently, because Madonna didn’t write the song “Like A Virgin,” they didn’t have to get her permission. Thoughts on this?
Mary: I wondered that, too. Then again, Madonna is like, doing poppers on TikTok so, you know, she’s out there living her life. That Madonna didn’t give her permission is an interesting contradiction to how Weird Al typically works. I’ve always read that he tries to get permission from artists before releasing a parody, and if they don’t like his song he will seriously consider not releasing the track. This was a big deal when Coolio famously said he did not give permission for “Amish Paradise.” It seems antithetical that they’d just use Madonna in such a wild way without her blessing – then again, it is very clearly not accurate to anything that happened in life, so maybe it was so over the top the crew felt it was okay? Who knows.
I also loved that Madonna and Al had this huge love affair and then they were like, “This has been a great 2 hours!” lol Also Madonna in the film encourages Al to use drugs and alcohol, something the real Weird Al is famous for not doing. Just another example of how Weird twists around the truth in an interesting way.
Anything else you want to say, or should we rate this?
Emily: Yeah, we can rate it.
Mary: I don’t know if we normally rate movies, but this one is a 4.5/5 for me. I really enjoyed it, but I’m not sure that I’ll be returning to it repeatedly like I do Weird Al’s older, dumber UHF.
Emily: I’m clearly not as huge of a Weird Al fan as you are, Mary. But I give this 4 enthusiastic stars for Daniel Radcliffe being Daniel Radcliffe, which will always make me incredibly happy.
Go check out UHF while you’re at it.