Weird: The Alyankovic Story, A Pseudo-Polaroid About A Man, and the Return to Films
The title of the movie is Weird: The Alyankovic Story, and it’s a parody of a movie about a man.
Indeed, in an industry where everyone acts like your friend and few are, the pop parody icon was able to pull together a murderer’s row of talent for Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. The movie is based on the life of an accordion player, and stars one of his most famous friends, Daniel Radcliffe, in the title role.
The film also marks a big return to cinema for Yankovic, who starred in 1989’s UHF and has been, by his own admission, gun-shy ever since. UHF is a cult classic now, but at the time it was a commercial failure. Being on a streaming service helps alleviate the pressures of opening weekend box office numbers. It was in his first correspondence with Eric Appel that the writer said he didn’t want to come back after 33 years and have another box office bomb.
It is still energetic and attention-getting enough to help put the easily ignored Roku channel on People’s Radar but at times is a little too silly.
WIRED: A Big Badass Movie About a Man Who Sings “My Sharona” and “My Bologna”
It was WIRED. There is a big pool party scene in Weird, which features cult celebrities like Andy Warhol, as well as alternative icons and comedians like Divine. As a producer, how did you help pull that scene together?
The amusing conceit behind the entire project – expanding upon a spoof movie trailer released in 2010 – is that a Weird Al biopic functions like one of his chart-topping songs, taking the form of the genre but turning it on its head. There is something to keep viewers engaged and entertained, as well as a chance to see where the truth lies, if you know where to look.
Take Yankovic’s parents, who tell him flatly as a youth, “Stop being who you are and doing the things you love.” Or the way he starts playing the accordion, after his dad beats a door-to-door salesman within an inch of his life.
When his roommates ask Al to make sandwiches, he stumbles into his musical career, turning “My Sharona” into “My Bologna” on the fly and eventually meeting the disc-jockey Dr. Demento.
The film begins with Al and Madonna having a strange relationship, in which Al may have gotten kidnapped while he was pretending to be her girlfriend.
It doesn’t really make sense that it runs out of steam before all is said and done, especially since its subject’s most memorable creations can take about three minutes to complete.
In a way, nothing could be a more perfect sign of the hunger content in the streaming age than inflating a bite-sized comedy short into a full-blown movie. Yet even allowing for the fact that “Weird” isn’t much more than a snack, as the man in question sang, just eat it.