Category: Movies

How can I describe to you how good this movie is? I could tell you how it faithfully and unflinchingly charts Al Yankovic’s meteoric rise, from his troubled childhood in which his accordion playing was the unforgiveable sin that caused his estrangement from his family, to his infamous, onstage alcohol-fueled breakdown and arrest. Perhaps I could highlight the tender but unapologetic treatment of Yankovic’s love life, from the beginnings of his highly publicized, turbulent affair with Madonna, played to absolute PERFECTION by Evan Rachel Wood, to their violent and heartbreaking separation amidst a hail of bullets and cocaine.

I could explore the end of Al’s innocence, as we watch his wrenching betrayal by Michael Jackson, who parodies Al’s song “Eat It” in a ruthless attempt to cash in on Yankovic’s success. I could expound on the way this film so seamlessly pulls back the veil of Al’s entanglement with organized crime, from his role in the murder of Pablo Escobar, to the retaliatory assassination that so famously cost Yankovic his life at the 1985 Grammy Awards. All of those things would be valid. But I think the very best way I can pay tribute to “Weird Al” Yankovic – as well as to this movie, which so accurately chronicles and celebrates the brief but oh-so-bright candle that was his life – is to tell you that as soon as this movie ended, I immediately pressed play and watched it all over again. 9 out of 10. Absolutely triumphant.

“Weird Al” Yankovic, “Now You Know”
“This song is technically eligible for Oscar consideration…”