Weird: The Al Yankovic Story: Daniel Radcliffe is hilarious in this crazy fake biopic (review)

A squared biopic parody about a popular song pasticheur, with Daniel Radcliffe mustachioed and in Hawaiian shirts. Very funny.

Since the 80s, Alfred Yankovic has made a specialty of covering pop hits by injecting wacky lyrics (My Sharona from The Knack becomes My Bologna ; Beat it of Michael Jackson transformed into Eat It ; Gangsta’s Paradise reinvented under the title Amish Paradise). A completely absurd pastiche concept worthy of a somewhat embarrassing uncle, which nevertheless led to him becoming an institution on the other side of the Atlantic under the name of “Weird Al” Yankovic. Did his life as an accordionist in flowered shirts deserve a film? Of course not, and that’s why it’s so funny. Co-written by Yankovic himself, this apocryphal and crazy biopic takes all the liberties, transforming the singer – impeccably played first hand by Daniel Radcliffe – into a rockstar devoured by a success greater than that of the Beatles.

Targeted, Rocketman Or Bohemian Rhapsodywhose clichés are carefully reduced to their absurdity (the disgusting parents who refuse to let Alfred play the polka, this “ devil music » ; the “eureka moment” of the first parody, inspired by a sausage…). The laughter comes less from the staging, very classic, than from a scenario constant in its extravagance and the quality of its dialogues. Weird: The Al Yankovic Story manages to reinvent every 20 minutes, adding along the way a hilarious plot with an evil Madonna (Evan Rachel Wood, born for this role). Possibly cult in a few years.

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, by Eric Appel, with Daniel Radcliffe, Evan Rachel Wood, Julianne Nicholson… Watch on OCS.