Weird: The Al Yankovic Story

What Tristan said:

This is a great movie to go into without any expectations at all. If you roughly know Weird Al’s history, you sort of roughly know how this movie is going to go. And yet, it will not be anything like what you expect. It’s a fun movie, it’s pretty good acting, and it fits with how Weird Al wields his craft: a parody artist through and through.

Mike’s verdict:

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is a musical comedy biopic that chronicles the rise of the legendary parody musician, “Weird Al” Yankovic. Directed by Jay Levey, the film stars Aaron Paul as Al Yankovic and features a talented ensemble cast including Mary Steenburgen, Gary Cole, and Patton Oswalt.

Right from the start, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story establishes its playful tone with a hilarious opening sequence that sets the stage for the irreverent humor that follows. The film charts Al’s journey from his humble beginnings in California to his eventual rise to fame, and along the way, it’s filled with countless comedic moments that are sure to delight fans of Yankovic’s music.

Aaron Paul gives an energetic and charismatic performance as Al, perfectly capturing the singer’s quirky personality and infectious sense of humor. The film also does an excellent job of capturing the look and feel of the different eras that Yankovic’s music has parodied over the years, from Michael Jackson‘s Thriller to Nirvana‘s Smells Like Teen Spirit.

Despite the film’s light-hearted tone, it does touch on some of the more serious aspects of Yankovic’s career, including his battles with record labels over the years. However, these moments never overshadow the film’s sense of fun, and the result is an enjoyable and entertaining biopic that will have viewers tapping their feet and humming along to the music.

Overall, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is a joyous celebration of one of the most unique and beloved figures in pop music. It’s a film that’s sure to please fans of “Weird Al” Yankovic’s music, but it’s also an enjoyable and accessible comedy that will have broad appeal. Highly recommended!

Just kidding!

The review above is actually what you get when you ask ChatGPT:

Can you write a movie review for Weird: The Al Yankovic Story in the style of the blog at reviewmike.wordpress.com?

I thought it would be interesting to see how close the robots are to putting me out of work, but clearly, I have nothing to worry about. Leaving aside the fact that it sounds like a grade 9 book report, there are quite a lot of factual errors in the generated review. In fact, the whole second sentence is a bit of a mystery; the film was directed by Eric Appel (not Jay Levey), it stars Daniel Radcliffe as Weird Al (not Aaron Paul) , and the cast does not include Mary Steenburgen or Gary Cole. To be fair, Patton Oswalt does make an appearance but he’s not exactly the most notable actor. At least the robots got the general vibe right – it is light-hearted and sure to please fans of Yankovic’s music.

Mike’s actual verdict:

I went into this without knowing anything at all about Weird Al’s history. I know some of the songs he appropriated, and even made a bootleg cassette of one of his albums many decades ago (by placing two tape recorders next to each other, no less). But otherwise I had no expectations.

Of course it is a parody. It took far too long for me to realize that Toby Huss (as young Al’s father) was being intentionally campy rather than just a terrible actor. Eventually I figured it out, but the pure fantasy of the film’s plot was still somewhat hard to get used to. The whole story feels like it’s being recounted from the point of view of a child who can’t separate memory from daydream, and I was anticipating that by the end we’d be disappointed with a “then 10 year-old Al woke up” ending. Thankfully that didn’t happen and Daniel Radcliffe did an excellent job of not reminding me of Harry Potter.

Over all, Weird is undeniably a lot of fun. The form-factor of the film is right on point for the other musician biographies that have been released over the last few years, but of course all of the specifics are absurd. It’s quite a clever effort to do with film what Yankovic has made a career of doing with music. Silly and unpredictable, the film is a refreshing departure from the seriousness that usually plagues biopics. The fake cameos that re-imagine Yankovic’s life were particularly well done, though I did have to keep reminding myself that Evan Rachel Wood was supposed to be Madonna.

There’s not much substance to analyze, but sometimes a movie is just meant to be an enjoyable few hours. I did learn something though – I’d always just assumed that “Al” was short for “Alan”.

8/10