There was a joke that used to frequently go around my corner of the playground when I was younger, namely that there are only two examples of pure genius when it comes to making music – Ludwig von Beethoven and “Weird” Al Yankovic, with the comparisons between the two not being nearly as tenuous as they seem. While this is perhaps reducing the entire medium to a single punchline, it helps situate us in a place where we can understand that Yankovic is one of the most cherished artists of the past half-century, someone who has proven himself to not only be a true original (which is hilarious considering his entire career is built from parodying other works), but also subverting the expectations of the cynics by embodying a spirit of longevity that few musicians have been able to replicate, his work being as bitingly funny and absurdly entertaining today as it was decades ago. He is also one of the few mainstream musicians that have lived a relatively principled life, insofar as there have been very few scandals in which he has been involved, and he’s just pleasantly worked his way to the top through pursuing his passions and gaining legions of supporters along the way. However, just because an artist is universally-beloved and seen as one of the most virtuous, decent individuals in the industry doesn’t preclude them from having their story told in a sprawling, decades-spanning biographical drama. As a result, we now have Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, which attempts to tell the story of his rise to fame and the subsequent fall after a lifetime of substance abuse, domestic disputes and criminal activity – all of it entirely untrue and fabricated for the sake of telling a story, but still riveting enough to form the foundation of one of the year’s very best comedies, and an absolute triumph that is both hilarious and heartfelt in ways that may surprise those expecting a mindless comedy.

There are often scenarios in which an absurd idea actually manages to flourish into something special. In an era where anyone can create content and upload it for the world to see, it’s not surprising that certain projects have received an abundance of attention and become something compelling. Weird: The Al Yankovic Story started out as nothing more than Funny or Die sketch, which parodied the overly-serious and dreadfully predictable sub-genre of musical biopics, which follow the same conventional structure and often seem to be formed from just changing the names and locations to fit a specific narrative, and spending an exorbitant amount of money to secure the rights to the artist’s music, so that audiences can spend two hours learning about their favourite musicians’ rise and fall, which are often testing the boundaries of fact. This kind of sensationalistic perspective is what fueled the conception of this idea, and which eventually was deemed suitable to become a film itself, with Yankovic himself not only supporting the project, but being active in its creation (one of the only instances where a subject being involved in their own biographical film has yielded positive results and actually been an asset to the artistic integrity of the production) – and the joy that exudes from every frame proves that this was a risky gambit that paid off tenfold, since Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is undeniably one of the year’s funniest films, an artistic satire that can stand alongside many of the greatest entries into the genre, and which never abates when it comes to delivering a cavalcade of jokes that range from hilariously charming to outrageously absurd (and where there is not a single scene that isn’t filled to the brim with opportunities for laughter), and yet still feels like a remarkable achievement of not only comedy, but in terms of very effective artistic satire.

Many don’t realize the staggering amount of work that went into the creation of a film such as this – satire is not always easy to construct, especially when you are lampooning something as recognizable as the music biopic genre. For as long as films have been made, there have been attempts to use famous artists as the subjects – they often lead troubled or tragic lives, and their stories are filled with dramatic moments, with audiences always responding to the rags-to-riches narrative that nearly every one of these films uses as their primary structure. More than anything else, they’re very easy to make – there isn’t a great deal of work that needs to be done to make them effective (unless you want them to be good, in which case some effort is needed, but that hasn’t stopped many of these films from following the exact same formula that is seen as successful), and if the subject is recognizable, all they need is an actor willing to take on the role, often asking them to mime their way through a few of their most popular songs, and you have a certified hit. Weird: The Al Yankovic Story treads a very narrow boundary between satirizing this genre, and actually becoming a part of it – so the smartest decision was to simply subvert every expectation and tell a completely fictionalized story of Weird Al’s rise to fame (his actual journey was just as fascinating, but it makes sense that he’d aim for a more deranged, fictionalized version of what his life could have been in an alternative dimension), and it doesn’t take too long before the audience is able to grasp onto the same wavelength and surrender to the pure, unhinged madness that pulsates throughout the film. Every scene is more outrageous than the last, and the entire film just feels like an experiment in trying to see how far the filmmakers can take this story before it falls apart – and it simply never does, being as insightful and funny as we’d expect, which is hardly surprising considering Yankovic himself was involved in writing the film, bringing the same subversive wit that has always inspired his work to the process.

The only aspect of this film that Yankovic was not involved in was playing the titular role (although in all fairness, he’s been playing that role his entire career) – and while he is in the film in a small but pivotal supporting role, it is Daniel Radcliffe who takes on the unenviable task of donning the curly wig and Hawaiian shirt and bringing this fictionalized version of Weird Al to life. At this point, it’s clear that we can easily confirm that Radcliffe has effectively moved past the status of being a former child star trying to be taken seriously as an adult – he is a brilliant actor in his own right, and while he will always be associated with the character that brought him fame and fortune, he’s constantly proving that he is not defined by it, doing some truly interesting work. Perhaps playing the part of Weird Al was entirely unexpected for him (like the rest of the film), but it was a genius bit of casting, not only because Radcliffe is about as distant from Yankovic as one can physically get, but also because he is a very gifted actor that would avoid cliches as far as he could. The reason this film works well is because Radcliffe, despite being in on the joke, plays the part with total sincerity, approaching a level of seriousness that contrasts the absurdity in much the same way as the likes of Leslie Nielsen and Nathan Fielder, who managed to be hilariously funny by playing it completely straight, and working against the surrealism that surrounds them, which creates the kind of magnificent comedic friction that is almost always effective when done right. The film has a large cast, many of them in smaller supporting roles – Evan Rachel Wood plays a villainous version of Madonna, and much like Radcliffe, she never resorts to caricature, but instead crafts her own absurd version of a maniacal version of the Queen of Pop. Julianne Nicholson, Toby Huss and Rainn Wilson are also wonderful, as are the parade of familiar faces that appear throughout the film, often playing notable artistic figures (such as in a centrepiece scene where every frame is filled with hilarious detail), with an ensemble

The most significant lesson that comes from Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (which is actually a surprisingly complex, well-constructed film)is that taking a risk is never a bad idea, granted that it contains a degree of compassion and ambition. If a director approaches any subject with an audacious point of view and a willingness to create something worth watching, there will be value found in every moment. This film leaps into the unknown, and while it did have a considerable amount of support from numerous sources, it could have become nothing more than a trivial footnote on a year that has many more traditionally ambitious comedies that have drawn attention and acclaim – but somehow, this feels like an event, a major entry into the very genre that it is satirizing, which is quite a rare occurrence, but one that is absolutely earned. Understanding the brilliance of this film requires some degree of realizing the reasons behind Yankovic’s enormous appeal over the past few decades. He is a true artist, someone whose ambitions have often been seen as some of the purest in the industry, and his desire to simply approach his art from a perspective of blending childlike humour with razor-sharp, satirical wit has made him a beloved performer and writer that continues to be cherished as the exact kind of artist everyone aspires to be. Weird: The Al Yankovic Story reflects many of these ideas, and it actively avoids unintentional cliche (although in all fairness, when the entire film is purposefully an attempt to eviscerate a genre constructed entirely out of cliches, everything along those lines would feel purposeful), while being a poignant celebration of a truly original artist, as told in his own words – the only difference is, those words are absurd, irreverent and completely lacking in any truth, which is what pushes this film to the point of being a near masterpiece.

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is a tremendous film – it has a terrific sense of humour and a lot of heart, which makes quite a profound difference if we’re looking at the idea of satire. Even those entirely devoted to Yankovic and his career had some slight hesitations about this project, especially since the earliest stages didn’t make it clear how much he was actually involved, which later developments showed was actually quite significant, the entire film actually felt like he was in control, at least from an authorial perspective – Eric Appel deserves every bit of credit for being able to harness the pure madness and turn it into something coherent and entertaining, without losing the outrageous spirit of the original idea. It’s a film that sounds hilarious in concept, and exceeds expectations in practice – what started as a fun but the frivolous idea actually flourished into a wonderful work of unhinged artistry. Considering it seems like every marginally famous artist warrants a biographical account of their life, it was only a matter of time before someone tackled Weird Al, so the decision to pre-empt this by actually having him construct a fictionalized version of his life, both as a way of satirizing the genre and making a very effective comedy, was exceptionally smart, since it led to something quite special, and a film that is hopefully going to become a true classic of a genre that it didn’t even intend to be a part of, but through a collision of wit, excellent filmmaking and genuine artistic integrity, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story becomes a masterwork all on its own, and a film that feels like it earns every moment of our time, which not even the most complex works manage to achieve, which is all the more reason to celebrate this as not only a brilliant satire, but an excellent film all on its own.