Ben Oliver

Now
Banner image for Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
film

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story

Stop! What in god’s name are you doing? Those aren’t the right words.
22 January 2023

A satirical take on musical biopics using Weird Al’s (Daniel Radcliffe) life as inspiration.

I’m not a Weird Al hater, but I must admit that I never found his work particularly funny. It’s refreshing then to see a film made by him that embraces the idea that he’s not exactly re-writing the musical history books with his body of work.

Even better is that it takes a firm jab at films like Bohemian Rhapsody, which garnered tons of praise but is a bit shit. Perhaps every few years we need a Walk Hard to remind us of how ridiculous these hagiographies can get, and Weird definitely has that covered.

It’s good to set the record straight too; ‘Eat It’ did come before ‘Beat It’, and Madonna did take over Pablo Escobar’s drug empire for a while. As well as a comedy, Weird serves as an important historical document.