Before rising to international success as one of the premiere musical parodists and comedians, “Weird” Al Yankovic (Daniel Radcliffe) was raised by a strict factory-working father, Nick (Toby Huss), and a dotting mother, Mary (Julianna Nicholson). After finding a hidden talent with the accordion, and moving out from his childhood home, he records his first major single “My Bologna” and the success he finds unlocks the realization that there is a life to be made as a songwriter. Mentored by the great Dr. Demento (Rainn Wilson) himself, inspiring the Michael Jackson chart-topper “Beat it,” and entering into a torrid affair with rising star Madona (Evan Rachel Wood), Weird Al left an undeniable footprint on the music industry… but take this account all with a grain of salt as almost none of that actually happened! 

The real Weird Al teamed up with writer/director Eric Appel to launch the first film for Roku which premiered – with limited ads – on the streaming platform’s free channel. Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is a riff on the music biopics from The Lonely Island sketch comedy crew. The film feels like the natural progression for the crew who looked to Yankovic for inspiration from their days on SNL doing wildly popular spoof songs and graduating to parody films, this time expanding their cast to include a number of titans in the music and comedy spheres such as Patton Oswalt, Conan O’Brien, Jack Black, Josh Groban, and Lin-Manuel Miranda among others in cameo roles. 

As a cradle-to-grave biopic, the film really picks up speed when Radcliffe takes over the title role, a continuation of his pattern of image-breaking roles in his post-Potter career. The film makes a joke commenting on the music biopic genre that Radcliffe is clearly not doing his own singing, here, and while like many of the best gags in Weird it is reoccurring, but not overdone. Radcliffe, then, to his credit is absolutely unhinged and has no shame or reservations when it comes to ensuring the joke lands. This down-for-anything attitude is infectious and admirable, and it makes for an incredibly joyous film to watch as he trounces around on stage and truly gives this role everything he has as a performer.  

The chemistry fostered between him and Wilson is one of the foundational dynamics of the film. Like Radcliffe, Wilson is also unashamed to humble himself for the sake of the joke. Wilson’s performance threatens to upstage Radcliffe as, especially early on, it outshines Al as the pupil who is still learning the ropes of the industry and fostering his talent, but Wilson can walk the line to make sure that this is always Radcliffe’s film and operates with grace as a supporting character. He has his moments to shine, specifically during a hallucinatory snack, but when it is time to hand the reigns back over, he does so without a twinge of jealousy.  For all the jokes the film will make towards these often-time prestige darlings, the heart behind the film from everyone in the cast, but especially Radcliffe and Wilson, is admirable and their dedication makes the film something special.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said as easily about Wood’s Madona, at least insofar as she is written on the page because her performance feels at home with the rest of the piece. To be fair, Wood’s role separates Al from the stage which is when Radcliffe is at his most magnetic, and the film gets a little tedious in the second act which finds Al at the bottom of the bottle and in the midst of the international drug trade, quickly turning Pablo Escobar (Arturo Castro) from a big fan to the artist’s biggest enemy. At 108-minutes, before ads so closer to an even 120, the film flounders in the second act, and while the extended setup does pay off by the end of the third act, it finds itself so separate from the music which is what really drives the film. Even off the stage, though, Weird is an absolutely manic experience given that Appel is relentless in his writing and maintains the robust joke ratio throughout the runtime. 

Weird is a delight, and while it may not be suitable for the youngest of audiences given some of the jokes, it can easily be enjoyed by a family with young teens and not feel like a punishment to the adults, even those who did not grow up with Yankovic playing in the Discman. These music biopics are often criticized for not being enough about the music, and while Weird is looking to parody the genre, the sentiment remains that the music sequences are the highlights of the film as the energy is at its most vibrant and rapturous. Flaws and all, Weird is an enjoyable film throughout and a resounding success of a debut for the streaming tech company. Even with the unskippable ads, it does not feel like a lesser film like the made for tv sequels, and it is a shame that it cannot be enjoyed on the big screen with a crowd laughing along at the zany antics, so the next best thing is to get the snacks ready and gather round the television for what is essentially the Forrest Gump (1994) of the music industry!