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Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
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Wikipedia article
'Weird: The Al Yankovic Story' is a 2022 American biographical parody film directed by Eric Appel from a screenplay he co-wrote with Al Yankovic. The film, a satire of biopics and loosely based on Yankovic's life and career, stars Daniel Radcliffe as Yankovic, along with Evan Rachel Wood, Rainn Wilson, Toby Huss, Julianne Nicholson, and Quinta Brunson in supporting roles.
'Weird: The Al Yankovic Story' premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2022, and is scheduled to be released on The Roku Channel on November 4, 2022.
Premise
'Weird' tells the "true" story of Alfred Matthew Yankovic, world famous as "Weird Al" Yankovic, his beginning interest in the accordion, his discovery by Dr. Demento, his support from Madonna, and his overall claim to fame. A satire of the biopic genre, the film intentionally exaggerates and downright fabricates moments in Yankovic's life for comical effect.
Cast
Additionally, the real "Weird Al" Yankovic appears as a record executive and also provided the vocals for the songs. Thomas Lennon appears as an accordion salesman.
Production
Development
In 2010, Funny or Die released a fake trailer for a satirical biographical film titled 'Weird: The Al Yankovic Story' directed by Eric Appel and starring Aaron Paul as musician "Weird Al" Yankovic. Additional co-stars in the three-minute trailer included Yankovic himself, Olivia Wilde, Gary Cole, Mary Steenburgen, and Patton Oswalt. Yankovic showed this trailer during his concert tours leading some fans to think it was for a real film or encouraging him to make it one. Following the success of other musician biopics such as 'Bohemian Rhapsody' (2018) and 'Rocketman' (2019), Yankovic began to legitimately consider the idea of making a full-length film. He and Appel began to shop the idea around Hollywood, but studios' initial impressions were that the film was going to be in the style of a Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker full-on parody and passed on the idea. The two looked at common tropes in other musician biopics, finding that facts about the musician's life were often changed arbitrarily, and used a similar approach to writing Yankovic's biographical story with the same type of creative freedom.An actual full-length film of the same name was announced in January 2022, with Daniel Radcliffe set to star in the title role. It was directed by Appel from a screenplay he co-wrote with Yankovic. Appel jokingly said in a statement, "When Weird Al first sat me down against my will and told me his life story, I didn't believe any of it, but I knew that we had to make a movie about it."
Yankovic and Appel had known that Radcliffe had been a fan of classical comedic musicians like Tom Lehrer; according to Radcliffe, his appearance on 'The Graham Norton Show' in November 2010, in which he sung Tom Lehrer's "The Elements" in front of Colin Farrell and Rihanna, was the reason for his casting: "I guess Al saw that and was like, 'This guy maybe gets it.' And so he picked me." Radcliffe was already a fan of Yankovic's work through his own appreciation as well as that of his girlfriend, Erin Darke, who would play Yankovic's music during road trips. Radcliffe was also looking to expand his acting repertoire, believing the part gave him more creative capabilities similar to his role in 'Swiss Army Man' (2016).
Filming
Once Radcliffe had agreed to star, Roku agreed to produce the film. As part of Roku's contract, filming had to be limited to eighteen days, due to a combination of cost-saving measures and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Principal photography began on February 10, 2022, in Los Angeles. Post-production was done while Yankovic was on his The Unfortunate Return of the Ridiculously Self-Indulgent, Ill-Advised Vanity Tour during 2022, with Yankovic working remotely with Appel's team to finalize the film.Casting
As part of his preparation, Radcliffe learned the principles of playing an accordion, Yankovic's signature instrument, through video tutorials Yankovic had made for him. Radcliffe sang the songs live on set during filming, but his vocals were substituted for pre-recorded ones by Yankovic in the final version of the film.In March, Evan Rachel Wood, Rainn Wilson, Toby Huss, and Julianne Nicholson were confirmed to star. Radcliffe finished shooting his scenes after sixteen days on March 4, in Pomona, California. Filming wrapped on March 8, 2022, after an eighteen-day shoot. In July 2022, it was revealed Quinta Brunson would also star.
Oswalt, who had played Dr. Demento in the original short, had been set to play this role in the film, but Oswalt broke his foot just before shooting, and due to the tight schedule, they could not wait. They were able to bring in Wilson to play the role at the last minute. Oswalt was still able to cameo in the film. Aaron Paul was set to cameo in the film, but had come down with COVID-19 during the filming period and could not participate.
Music
While the film features several of Yankovic's previous songs such as "My Bologna", "Like a Surgeon", and "Eat It", it also includes a new song recorded by Yankovic for the film "Now You Know".Release
'Weird: The Al Yankovic Story' had its world premiere at the Royal Alexandra Theatre during the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2022, and is scheduled to be released on The Roku Channel on November 4, 2022.
Reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 95% based on 20 reviews, with an average of 7.1/10. Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 74 out of 100 based on 16 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Owen Gleiberman of 'Variety' reviewed, "'Weird' is witty and inventive enough to sustain what could, in lesser hands, have been a one-joke movie, an 'SNL' riff on itself. The film's ultimate joke is that 'Weird Al' Yankovic's entire career was a joke not just because he made so-daft-they're-funny versions of other people's songs, but because what he did made him a court jester of imitation." Leah Greenblat of 'Entertainment Weekly' gave the film a grade of B, writing that the film is "an alternative-facts fever dream so bent on the certifiably ridiculous that it circles back around somehow to sweetness. You don't need any of it, really, but as far as celebrity hagiographies go, you kind of can't beat it."
At TIFF, the film was the winner of the People's Choice Award for Midnight Madness.Christian Zilko, [https://www.indiewire.com/2022/09/tiff-2022-peoples-choice-award-winners-list-1234763848/ "The Fabelmans Wins TIFF 2022 Peoples Choice Award"]. 'IndieWire', September 18, 2022.
References
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