Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, directed by Eric Appel, is the only slightly dramatized biopic of possibly the most famous comedy musicians of all time. Appearing at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8th, 2022 and appearing on Roku on the 4th of November 2022, it follows "Weird" Al Yankovic, here played by Daniel Radcliffe, as he rises to fame through adversity, immediately gets discovered, falls to his own hubris, dates Madonna (Evan Rachel Wood) for a brief period, kills Pablo Escobar, and rises again. Like I said, only slightly dramatized.
In all seriousness, this is, naturally given who Weird Al is, a parody of music biopics, with some surprising nuggets of truth hidden within. He did get his first accordion from a door-to-door salesman and got his start from fellow comedy legend Dr. Demento (Rainn Wilson), but it's mostly an absurd and charmingly goofy mockery of a well overdone formula. This film was based on a Funny or Die sketch from 2013, with the company producing this film and many of the story beats being taken from it. An on the ball parody nine years ago, it's an on the ball parody now. But there was a similar music biopic parody 15 years ago, too.
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, directed by Jake Kasdan, follows the story of fictional musician Dewey Cox (John C. Reilly) and his rise to fame through adversity, his immediate discovery, fall to his own hubris, and his triumphant return. While it does have the appropriate amount of 2000s comedy antics, what it does best was striking while the iron is hot and taking many of the methods and aesthetics of prestige films that were coming out at the time, especially Ray and Walk the Line, biopics about Ray Charles and Johnny Cash respectively. While it was a box-office bomb, it was well received by critics and is regarded today as a cult classic with a great soundtrack, which is both of its time and well ahead of it.
Now, this isn't a hit piece on how Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is a rip-off of Walk Hard, quite the opposite. The fact that two movies can parody the same formula, 15 years apart, and for that parody to still feel relevant reveals something that we should take note of. That in a place and time when film and fiction is constantly evolving, there is one specific subgenre that, while constantly gaining prestige, has remained stale for well over a decade.
The Problem With Music Biopics
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Both of these films are a parody of a well-overdone formula — the music biopic formula. It starts with the artist in their position either midway or to the end of the film before flashing back to their childhood. They usually endure some form of trauma at a young age or are met with parents intolerant of their musical ambitions, or both. They find they have a gift early, and instantly create a notable song before instantly getting noticed by an influential figure like an agent or a producer. There's usually a montage of them making an album, going on tour, or just generally being famous. They inevitably let the fame go to their heads and get addicted to drugs, cheat on their partners, get burnt out by their work, alienate their friends or all of the above before hitting rock bottom. They bounce back for their triumphant return, make up with their disapproving parents, put on one last big performance, freeze-frame with text telling us where they are now or when and how they died. Credits with pictures of the actual artist.
Many films have likely come to your mind as I described this plot synopsis, films that gained a lot of money and prestige, maybe won some awards, but films not many people remember today. The previously mentioned Ray and Walk the Line, during the biopic boom of the 2000s, or La Vie En Rose, Notorious, The Doors, Straight Outta Compton, or even ones as recent as Bohemian Rhapsody, Respect, or the only recently released Elvis. Music biopics appear maybe once or twice a year and little changes between each one. That's not to say every music biopic is the same, but those that break the mold such as Love and Mercy or I'm Not Here are usually exceptions to the rule.
Music Biopics Will Continue to Be Churned Out
Despite people forgetting or turning on more recent biopics like Bohemian Rhapsody as quickly as they came out, really only noting the performance of the lead actor if it's a standout, films like this still get released. The prestige is likely why, making a film about an accessible figure like a musician, with the blessing or involvement of the musician or their estate, usually means the film has to both appeal to an incredibly wide audience and make the subject look as good as possible. That this was an amazing life of a gifted person who went through a lot and endured it all.
No one should expect any fictionalized portrayal of a real life or event to be completely historically accurate, but the music biopic formula has become insidious to the point of completely changing or heavily watering down the facts, or changing the timeline of events, all in service of a tired cliché. It not only homogenizes the complex lives of several extremely complicated human beings, as no full human life can be compressed into two hours, but also makes the creative process look easy. The incredibly hard work it takes to be a career musician usually takes a backseat to the trials and tribulations they had to endure, which are usually the same trials and tribulations as other artists in other movies to the point where you feel nothing for any of them, despite how real those hardships were outside the film.
There is so much hope in me that Weird: The Al Yankovic Story gains the success Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story should have. Not just because Radcliffe gives us yet another brilliant performance from his uncanny post-Harry Potter career, or the fact that it is a wildly fun watch, but because it reintroduces an important message into the mainstream: Music biopics are in desperate need of an overhaul, and audiences have long since wised up to them. We need well-made film parodies again, like this one, to reflect on the self-importance of prestige filmmaking and to point out that it can get to the point of ridiculousness — or maybe it already has. We need new stories to be told in new ways, for the life of a working artist to be told through more than just a montage of tours and autograph signings, for the tribulations of a human life to become more than rote and routine, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story tells us that the formula is exhausted, to the point of silliness. We should all listen.