Weird: The Al Yankovic Story

As we’ve noted fairly often in this blog, musical biopics have experienced considerable popularity in recent years; it stands to reason given this context that eventually, after perhaps the more obvious choices (such as Whitney Houston, Elvis, Queen, or Elton John), attention would turn to those a bit outside—the provocateurs. And among that crowd, there are vanishingly few who have commanded the limelight as consistently as Al Yankovic has.

The opening moments of the trailer can be seen as a bit of a fake out just as they can be seen as sincere. He really has won five Grammys, for example, but the impassioned strings do not necessarily suggest they were won by a first-rank parodist: instead we are led to believe that the build-up is for an artist of first rank. From 0:18 to 0:22 we hear the opening riff for Yankovic’s cover of Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” (rather, “Like a Surgeon”), which some will immediately recognize as Yankovic’s breakout hit, released in 1985. Sure enough, after a few choice seconds of silence, we see a young Yankovic (played charmingly by Daniel Radcliffe) turn around and open his accordion. Note that the very first full view we get of Yankovic is in tandem with the instrument with which he become synonymous.

We see a montage next, with “Like a Surgeon” played straight; note the simpe but effective synch point at 0:32 with the high-five. Later, the actors’ title cards also appear in synch with the music—a gesture practically expected, but effective nonetheless. Around 0:40 an extra white noise-like sound creeps in, disturbing the soundtrack’s previously innocuous, nondiegetic role. 0:42 and 0:44 feature hand claps and a fight scene with additional synch points to the song’s rhythm. At 0:45 the music drops out for one of Yankovic’s one-liners—deliberately, parodic beyond belief. “Anyone got an accordion?”, Radcliffe asks, as three of the instruments suddenly appear from all sides—suggesting that the film might itself engage with the absurd, just as Yankovic does in his song writing. A doorbell intrudes on a resurgent soundtrack at 0:52, receding again to allow for another one-liner by Radcliffe. It’s anticlimactic, but humanizing.

This brief teaser trailer wastes no time in leveraging a variety of audiovisual techniques to take the audience through multiple facets of who Al Yankovic is; the musical edit illustrates how he is as much deserving of accolades and capable of commanding a large crowd as he is patently ridiculous, in the best sense.

— Curtis Perry