‘Weird: The Al Yankovic Story’ Review: Novelty Acts & Cult Heroes Take The Spotlight In Daffy Anti-Biopic [TIFF

passed away in 2016, but his musings about his Hollywood career remain. His journals are set to be published in a book titled “Madly, Deeply: The Diaries of Alan Rickman,” out on Oct.

Full casting for the upcoming Off Broadway revival of Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along starring the previously announced Jonathan Groff, Lindsay Mendez and Daniel Radcliffe has been firmed up, with Krystal Joy Brown of Hamilton among those rounding out the production.

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story has been praised in early reviews following its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.Directed by Eric Appel in his directorial debut, the biographical parody film stars Daniel Radcliffe as ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic and loosely follows the musician’s life and career, while serving as a satire of the biopic genre.Alongside Radcliffe, the film stars Evan Rachel Wood as Madonna, Rainn Wilson as Dr. Demento, and Toby Huss and Julianne Nicholson as Al’s parents.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV Critic The story of Alexis Haines’ entanglement with a circle of Los Angeles-area home invaders has been told multiple times over: In the reporting of Nancy Jo Sales, who profiled her for Vanity Fair in 2010; on her own reality show, “Pretty Wild,” which aired on E! in 2010; and in Sofia Coppola’s 2013 film “The Bling Ring,” based on Sales’ work. Now, Haines (formerly Alexis Neiers), along with former associate Nick Norgo (formerly Nick Prugo), attempts to set the record straight in the Netflix documentary series “The Real Bling Ring: Hollywood Heist.” The three-episode series sheds little light, and bulks out its running time with idle musings on fame that feel warmed over from the early 2010s. It’s not that Haines’ and Norgo’s stories, told with both respective parties’ permission in this doc, don’t have inherent interest: Both of them became entranced by the concept of celebrity and, as part of the “bling ring” cabal, stole cash and belongings from the homes of famous people, including Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, and Orlando Bloom. (One of their victims, “The Hills” personality Audrina Patridge, speaks to the camera for “The Real Bling Ring.”)

Steven Spielberg is enjoying another triumph, with his quasi-autobiographical drama “The Fabelmans” earning this year’s People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival.

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Daniel Radcliffe’s Weird Al film has gone down a treat at Toronto International Film Festival. Also starring Evan Rachel Wood as Madonna, the project, titled Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, follows the life and career of the Grammy winner, who is known for his hits included Eat It (a parody of Michael Jackson’s Beat It) and Amish Paradise (Coolio’s Gangsta’s Paradise). The Harry Potter actor takes on the title role and well and truly got into character, donning his signature moustache and a curly wig.

Daniel Radcliffe doesn't have to look far for fitness inspiration! ET's Rachel Smith spoke to the 33-year-old actor at the premiere of his upcoming flick, , at the Toronto International Film Festival, and he revealed how his parents served as two of his major fitness influences as he geared up to be shirtless in the film.«There is a bizarre thing that happened this year — I was shirtless more as Al than I’ve been in anything else,» Radcliffe told ET. "… An article about the film came out saying that I got in shape for this role, which I didn’t. My parents do CrossFit.

Daniel Radcliffe nails the look of “Weird Al” Yankovic for his latest film “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story”, but when it comes to jam sessions on set, the actor only wishes he was as talented as the real musician.

rocky romance with Madonna, who then became a Yoko Ono-esque wedge between him and his band. Michael Jackson definitely did not release “Beat It” after Yankovic wrote “Eat It.” Was cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar a Weird Al superfan who offered him 1 billion pesos to perform at his birthday party? Who’s to say?What Yankovic and director/co-writer Eric Appel have done, brilliantly in spots, is parody Yankovic’s own life while sending up the whole biopic genre.

Al Yankovic (Daniel Radcliff) is a curly-haired, awkward kid with no friends and no excitement in his life. Until one day when he ends up at a turnt-up polka party where he wow’s the party crowd by shredding on the accordion. His parents, Mary and Nick Yankovic (Julianne Nicholson and Toby Huss), disapprove of him playing, and his relationship with them becomes strained.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic In “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story,” the winningly daffy-droll postmodern satirical biopic about the beloved cult song parodist of the MTV era, Al (Daniel Radcliffe), weird but not yet “Weird,” is sitting around with his roommates when lightning strikes — or, at least, bologna. One of the roommates asks Al to name the thing he’d most like to do in the world. Al, speaking with a fervor bigger than mere desire — he’s talking about nothing less than a dream — replies, with stoic conviction, “Make up the words to a song that already exists.” Moments later, the Knack’s “My Sharona” is blasting away on the radio, and just after he’s taken a package of bologna out of the fridge, he has his a-ha moment. The lyrics come to him in a flash: “Oo my little hungry one! Hungry one! Open up a package of MY bologna…” An irresistible parasitical fake star is born.  

lot, “Rocketman” set out to be true not in a literal sense but only in an emotional one (and was all the better for making its fakery transparent), and “Elvis” was a freewheeling mixture of semi-reality and extravagant fantasy.So if it’s the case that regular rock biopics are weird, what of one whose title begins with the word weird? It certainly doesn’t figure to be one for the nitpickers (which at times have definitely included me) who point out that a song is in the wrong place chronologically or that this character is a composite or that so-and-so never did such-and-such.Questions like that don’t mean a damn thing when it comes to “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story,” a churning and very entertaining load of poppycock that makes not the slightest pretense of being an accurate retelling of the story of everybody’s favorite song parodist, Weird Al Yankovic.In fact, the whole point is that it isn’t accurate, that it’s a whacked-out alternate reality in which young Al got his first accordion after his father beat a door-to-door accordion salesman to a bloody pulp, Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” was a parody of Weird Al’s “Eat It” and Madonna (played by Evan Rachel Wood with gum-snapping zest) was both Al’s girlfriend and a murderous psychopath.The film, directed by Eric Appel, produced by Funny or Die and distributed by Roku, takes Weird Al’s approach to music – take a well-known song and change the words to make them funnier – and applies it to the rock biopic.

Angelique Jackson “The world belongs to the weird,” so says the tagline for “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story,” but the wee hours of Friday morning belonged to Daniel Radcliffe as the comedy made its world premiere as the clock struck midnight at the Toronto International Film Festival. Radclifffe stars as the beloved parody musician in the upcoming Roku original film, which made its world premiere at the Royal Alexandra Theatre, kicking off TIFF’s Midnight Madness programming lineup. It was a full house at the theater and the crowd ate up every second of the parody biopic, cheering loudly for every surprise cameo (of which there were many) at the first “backstory” behind Yankovic’s biggest hits from “My Bologna” to “Eat It.” Some of the most raucous applause was saved for the Radcliffe-fronted rendition of “Amish Paradise.”

Daniel Radcliffe is making a rare red carpet appearance with his girlfriend!

Daniel Radcliffe makes out with Evan Rachel Wood, as the two portray "Weird Al" Yankovic and Madonna in a recently released trailer for an upcoming biopic. "Weird: The Al Yankovic Story" features the parody songwriter's rise to fame, including his meeting with Madonna. Radcliffe's look for the film includes Weird Al's curly locks and his moustache.

Lance Bass has scouted out the next member of *NSYNC.

Airing at the end of this year on The Roku Channel, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story sees Daniel Radcliffe portray the biggest-selling comedy recording artist of all time. The feature-length comedy aims to explore every aspect of Yankovic’s life, from his beginning interest in the accordion to his torrid celebrity love affairs.

hilarious trailer for the upcoming biopic “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.”“Harry Potter” star Radcliffe, 33, dons a wild wig, glasses and bushy mustache to play the now-62-year-old parody crooner, while Wood, 34, rocks the “Like a Virgin” singer’s eclectic style, including big, teased hair and a leather jacket.In one scene, a flirty Madonna visits “Weird Al” at his massive mansion and asks if he will do a parody of her hit. The shot rapidly cuts to the two wildly kissing against the wall in the film, which documents the “White and Nerdy” rapper’s rise to fame.The clip also dives into the accordion-loving Mad Magazine contributor’s put-upon early life and how he composed his parody songs, including “My Bologna,” “Another One Rides the Bus” and “I Love Rocky Road.” “Be as weird as you want to be,” he declared to an awards show audience in the trailer, which also focuses on Yankovic’s struggle to be taken seriously.“All I wanted was to make up new words to a song that already exists,” Radcliffe-as-Yankovic confessed in the trailer to discuss his creative process.