Weird: The Al Yankovic Story certainly lives up to its name. A biopic that’s not a biopic, this movie had a production timeline of less than a year. Surprisingly, you can’t even tell, and even more surprising is that the movie is very good. Thankfully, it’s on Roku for everyone to watch as many times as they want, free of charge.

The cast kills it in this one. Daniel Radcliffe IS Weird Al. The Harry Potter alum plays the character perfectly. He oozes charisma as the legendary accordionist while keeping the character semi-grounded in an already weird movie. Not only that but he bears a striking resemblance to Yankovic, to the point where I had to do some double-takes. Rachel Evan Wood is surprisingly great as Madonna and breathes a lot of life into this movie. Without her, the movie would not be as good as it is. The movie also has so many cameos that just feel random yet super funny and exciting. Every cast member, no matter the size of their role, clearly had a blast working on this one.

In true Weird Al fashion, this is not a biopic but rather a satire of the genre. This movie is probably more fabricated than true. However, the movie knows this and makes the most of it. The fabricated story of Yankovic’s life is the highlight of the movie for me and the final twenty or so minutes, which I won’t spoil, had me and the audience in stitches.

Finally, we get to the music. All the Weird Al hits you know, and love are in this movie and for fans like myself, it was an absolute treat. I loved hearing some of my favourites such as “Eat It”, “Amish Paradise”, “Fat” and of course, “Like a Surgeon”. While Radcliffe didn’t sing any of the songs on his own (Yankovic’s vocals were dubbed over), he still gives it his all while lip-synching and he makes it very believable.

I don’t know how they made the movie work, but they did. For the full 108 minutes, I was laughing out loud. The movie never felt stale, and the pacing was surprisingly good. The tonal shifts in the fabrication scenes were a welcome addition and overall, the movie was very well put together.

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story has no right being as funny and good as it is. It’s a shame the movie is going direct to Roku because I think it needed to be seen on the big screen. Don’t miss this one!

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