The gang final night time on the Royal Alexandra Theatre, which the web tells me is the oldest repeatedly working dwell theatrical venue on the continent, howled by means of nearly each minute of the midnight premiere of Bizarre: The Al Yankovic Story. Now, I’m not right here to yuck anybody’s yum. One man’s “properly, that was simply plain silly” can at all times be one other’s Dare to Be Silly. However I’d gently counsel that there wasn’t loads Bizarre may have finished to go away this viewers stone-faced. Right here we have been, in spite of everything, on the first screening of TIFF’s famously rowdy Midnight Insanity program in about three years. Folks got here with chuckles within the chamber. They laughed on the “strobe results” warning earlier than the film. They have been completely all the way down to clown. And that would solely profit this formally unofficial, goofily fabricated model of the well-known music parodist’s life story—a comedy that by no means stopped feeling like a three-minute sketch uncomfortably and unnecessarily expanded to almost two full hours.
In reality, Bizarre is strictly that. Its inspiration is a dozen-years-old faux trailer from Humorous or Die, whose single joke was, “What if you happen to plugged the clean-mouthed, clean-living polka maestro with the library of food-based High 40 spoofs right into a gritty, debaucherous, rock-and-roll biopic?” The actual Yankovic has, the truth is, lived a loads eventful life, marked by sudden tragedy, just a few authorized dustups, and practically half a century of labor within the overlapping music and comedy worlds. Just about none of that makes it into Bizarre, which Yankovic and director Eric Appel—who collectively conceived of the unique viral video—as an alternative use as a possibility to riff on among the moldy conventions of the music biopic. There may be, kind of, only one joke on this expanded tackle the self-esteem, too, and that’s making a fictional actuality the place Yankovic (performed with a sure profitable earnestness by Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe) turned the most important star on the earth.
And so right here’s a younger Al being struck with inspiration whereas watching a bundle of bologna, commenting aloud that nobody truly will get well-known in a single day (proper earlier than turning on the radio to find that he’s immediately well-known), and assembly a parade of fellow countercultural, comedy-nerd favorites like Dr. Demento, Wolfman Jack, and Pee-wee Herman, all performed by… fellow comedians winking at their very own impeccable good style in influences. Stroll Arduous acquired to numerous these things 15 years in the past, and with way more precision. (Why precisely is Bizarre narrated by the baritone trailer-voice man? Isn’t this presupposed to be a lampoon of music biopics, not the ads for music biopics?) Comparisons could be simpler to keep away from if Appel and Yankovic didn’t tread among the identical floor, blowing large stretches of the runtime on a subplot about Al’s disapproving dad.
Bizarre may have used extra of Yankovic’s distinctive wit, and fewer of the random sub-ZAZ materials that pads out its slim story.
Loads of the actual Yankovic’s healthful dork-vaudeville spirit seeps into the fabric by means of gags like a really Al model of the stereotypical wild teenage occasion (I did snicker, I’ll confess, at cool children earnestly debating the deserves of polka deep cuts) and a basic willingness to be self-deprecating in regards to the distinctive area he’s carved within the pop-culture consciousness. Nobody may actually confuse Bizarre for self-flattery; that will require much more jokes hinging on precise particulars of his work or cultural footprint. The film doesn’t construct a lot on the unique Humorous or Die technique of merely throwing glasses, a frizzy fro, and a brightly patterned shirt on the boilerplate of melodramatic Hollywood cautionary tales in regards to the music biz. It may have used extra of Yankovic’s distinctive wit, and fewer of the random sub-ZAZ materials that pads out its slim story, together with an entire superfluous goof on action-movie extra, related maybe just for clowning on the kind of testosterone fests that have been large within the heyday of “Like a Virgin” and “Like a Surgeon.” (Evan Rachel Wooden capably takes over for Olivia Wilde because the queen of pop. For maybe apparent causes, Michael Jackson is simply talked about, not portrayed.)
The overall laziness of the parody is a disgrace, and possibly a shock. For all Bizarre leans on only a handful of his hottest spoofs (this isn’t an particularly exhaustive love letter to the person’s legacy or his diehard followers), Yankovic has confirmed himself to be a sly, skillful parodist in his essential medium, far past his novelty re-skins of pop hits; you’ll be able to hear his music smarts in his basic style pastiches and all-purpose artist parodies. Hear, for instance, “Germs,” a priceless—and compositionally subtle—9 Inch Nails tribute that good friend, fellow critic, and Bizarre Al superfan Nick Allen turned me on to. Nick, by the way, not too long ago ponied up for a backstage, artist-meet expertise on Yankovic’s tour that in the end occurred with, for security causes, a thick plate of glass between him and Al. The signed image commemorating the assembly was the 2 posed individually after which photoshopped collectively. Afraid to say that’s funnier—and weirder—than absolutely anything in Bizarre.
Our protection of the Toronto Worldwide Movie Pageant continues all week. For extra of A.A. Dowd’s writing, please go to his Authory web page.
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