Produced by Funny or Die Productions and written by Yankovic and Eric Appel, who also directs, Weird premiered at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival and is available for streaming on Roku as of November 4. Made on a reported budget of eight million dollars and shot in only 18 days, don’t expect lavish production values like with Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis or a lot of artistic cinematography, but Weird is one of the best and, more importantly, one of the funniest biopics in recent years, even if much of it is fictitious and outrageously exaggerated.

Whether you’re a fan of Weird Al’s music or not, you’ll likely enjoy the performances of some of his most recognizable hits, which were rerecorded for the film and are hilariously woven into the plot. For instance, he spontaneously creates the lyrics for “My Bologna” while making lunch for his roommates and for “Another One Rides the Bus” when confronted by Wolfman Jack (Jack Black) at Dr. Demento’s (Rainn Wilson) pool party. In addition to Black, there are cameos by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Conan O’Brien, Patton Oswalt, Michael McKean, Will Forte, Weird Al himself, and many others, but none more comical than Thomas Lennon as a door-to-door accordion salesperson. Quinta Brunson does an excellent job as Oprah and Evan Rachel Wood totally disappears into her bawdy caricature of Madonna. The plot line of the Material Girl pursuing an affair with Al and hanging around with him, which ultimately leads to a confrontation with Columbian drug lord Pablo Escobar, is hysterically absurd. 

The script and direction are refreshingly tight as are the performances of the supporting cast, but Radcliffe is absolutely superb as Yankovic. From the earnest and idealistic young Al, Radcliffe fully commits to the role as his character is consumed by his fame and transforms into an egotistical rock star living in a preposterously lavish mansion. In a particularly side-splitting scene, a drunk and totally off-the-rails, shirtless Al rants at the audience during a live concert. It also happens that Radcliffe is ridiculously jacked and walks around shirtless in this and some other scenes and his insanely ripped physique is never addressed, which just adds to the absurdity.

The quality of the streamed 1080p picture was a little soft when played back on my Roku television. Very early scenes of Al in his youth appeared a little dark and bathed in a pale yellow light, while they were noticeably brighter with more natural lighting later on with Al as an adult. The picture quality is acceptable for such a low-budget production but there were times when there was some breakup and blockiness during scenes with a lot of action or movement. The most challenging scene occurs when Al performs “I Love Rocky Road” in a dark, seedy club. The garish red stage lighting combined with the darkness of the setting resulted in some loss of contrast and made the picture look a little blotchy. Otherwise, there was more than enough fine detail for the straightforward cinematography and to display the colorful patterns in Al’s Hawaiian shirts as well as his slightly unkempt mop of curly hair and ‘80s mustache. 

Audio is made available in 5.1 Dolby Digital Plus but the songs are presented mostly in stereo with little use of the surrounds. They sounded good, with very discrete vocals on the newly recorded versions of the classic parody songs done for the soundtrack. Some scenes did take full advantage of the surround channels to provide an effective and enveloping auditory experience but most of the film is driven by dialogue, which was always clear and intelligible.

If you don’t have a Roku, you can still watch Weird through their app or on a web browser. It’s free, and although the advertisements are a little bothersome, Weird is an exceptionally funny film with an inspired performance by Radcliffe.