Packed with parody musical cliches, this spoof biopic of the afro-haired singing turn is a long slow trudge with little comedy
This month has seen the posthumous release of Alan Rickman’s diaries, which revealed the late star’s opinion about his Harry Potter co-star Daniel Radcliffe: “I still don’t think he’s really an actor but he will undoubtedly direct/produce.” Maybe so. But these career progressions are still in the future and Radcliffe has been cast here as the American accordionist and wacky singing turn “Weird” Al Yankovic with frizzy afro and moustache in this laboriously unfunny and pointless spoof biopic, co-written and produced by Yankovic himself.
Just as Yankovic made his name with wacky parodies of songs like My Sharona and Another One Bites the Dust, so this movie strains to parody musical films such as Walk the Line, with all the usual cliches: needle-scratch freezeframe voiceover opening (although the cliche there is maybe unintentional), tough upbringing, uncaring parents, breakthrough to fame, substance abuse, crisis and comeback, all of which bears little or no relation to Yankovic’s actual life.
