The group final night time on the Royal Alexandra Theatre, which the web tells me is the oldest frequently working dwell theatrical venue on the continent, howled by 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 “effectively, that was simply plain silly” can at all times be one other’s Dare to Be Silly. However I’d gently recommend that there wasn’t quite a bit Bizarre may have performed to go away this viewers stone-faced. Right here we had 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 had been totally all the way down to clown. And that would solely profit this formally unofficial, goofily fabricated model of the well-known track 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.
Actually, Bizarre is strictly that. Its inspiration is a dozen-years-old pretend trailer from Humorous or Die, whose single joke was, “What in case you 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, in actual fact, lived a loads eventful life, marked by sudden tragedy, a number of authorized dustups, and almost 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, roughly, only one joke on this expanded tackle the vanity, too, and that’s making a fictional actuality the place Yankovic (performed with a sure successful earnestness by Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe) turned the most important star on this planet.
And so right here’s a younger Al being struck with inspiration whereas observing a package deal 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 Laborious bought to quite a lot of these items 15 years in the past, and with rather more precision. (Why precisely is Bizarre narrated by the baritone trailer-voice man? Isn’t this alleged to be a lampoon of music biopics, not the commercials for music biopics?) Comparisons could be simpler to keep away from if Appel and Yankovic didn’t tread among the similar 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 true Yankovic’s healthful dork-vaudeville spirit seeps into the fabric by gags like a really Al model of the stereotypical wild teenage celebration (I did chortle, I’ll confess, at cool children earnestly debating the deserves of polka deep cuts) and a common willingness to be self-deprecating concerning the distinctive house he’s carved within the pop-culture consciousness. Nobody may actually confuse Bizarre for self-flattery; that may 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 concerning 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 had 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 final 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 primary medium, far past his novelty re-skins of pop hits; you’ll be able to hear his music smarts in his common style pastiches and all-purpose artist parodies. Hear, for instance, “Germs,” a priceless—and compositionally refined—9 Inch Nails tribute that good friend, fellow critic, and Bizarre Al superfan Nick Allen turned me on to. Nick, by the way, just lately ponied up for a backstage, artist-meet expertise on Yankovic’s tour that finally befell 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 Competition continues all week. For extra of A.A. Dowd’s writing, please go to his Authory web page.
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