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Review of Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (Leo Birenberg/Zach Robinson)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... for the re-recordings of the Al Yankovic songs and
excellent score by Leo Birenberg and Zach Robinson, who supply parody
orchestral music with an engaging narrative and undeniable heart.
Avoid it... if you have absolutely no tolerance for Yankovic's sense of humor, because the application of all the music to this film is done purely in his style of panache.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story: (Leo Birenberg/Zach
Robinson) After years of showing a fake trailer for a biographical film
about his life at concerts, writer and performer Al Yankovic teamed up
with director Eric Appel to actually create the movie. But, as one could
expect from "Weird Al," the resulting Weird: The Al Yankovic
Story is a parody of biopics about musicians, making fun of all the
problems related to family, substance abuse, and industry denials in
similar films by greatly exaggerating them in his own. There's about an
equal split between real biographical elements of Yankovic's past in the
film and outlandishly conceived plot devices to make the man seem far
edgier and cooler than he actually was. The 2022 movie went so far as to
propose a romantic relationship with singer Madonna, wild and drunken
performances on stage, his foray as John Rambo as he lays waste to a
Colombian drug cartel, and, of course, his own assassination in 1985.
The outlandish narrative elements yield the most laughs in the film,
though the genuine, heartfelt discoveries of accordions, polka music,
and a knack for writing crazy lyrics is handled with surprisingly tender
emotions at times. The movie's riotous personality and brazen violence
mixes with frequent interjections by Yankovic's music. For enthusiasts
of the performer, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is a fascinatingly
amusing sideshow focused on his first ten years in the industry, and the
coordination of the vintage Yankovic songs, ample source material, and
original score makes for a complicated juggling act. Most of the classic
parody songs included in the movie are shown performed on stage to some
degree, so Yankovic re-recorded those entries to account for the need
for surround sound renditions. (The exception appears to be "Eat It,"
which was only heard in lesser source quality in the picture.) Listeners
shouldn't expect too much divergence between the "2022 versions" and the
songs' original forms. Due to a little liberal swing with the time frame
of the movie, the 1990's classic, "Amish Paradise," is tossed in for
good measure. One original song, "Now You Know," is a parody of movie
end credits with two false endings, and although Yankovic was hoping to
earn an Academy Award nomination for this song (both in real-life and in
the lyrics), the distributor of the movie chose not to release the
picture in a manner as to make it eligible.
The variety of source music in Weird: The Al Yankovic Story includes some accordion performances by Yankovic and others by Cory Pesaturo, whose work also extended into the score's recording. These source applications are all effective in the movie, though something like "The Chicken Dance" (a bizarre bullying scene in the story) is insufferable on its own unless you need top material for retaliatory use on phone solicitors and nosey neighbors. Not unexpectedly, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story utilizes a traditional orchestral score that plays its role totally seriously to amplify the ridiculousness of the movie. Tackling these duties are young composing duo Leo Birenberg and Zach Robinson, who together served as assistant coordinators for Christophe Beck in the early 2010's and launched their own compositional careers that most notably landed them the television series "Cobra Kai" later in that decade. Their score battles the song placements and source material, some of which they also coined, from start to finish in the movie, but they manage to yield a surprising amount of cohesiveness in the mostly symphonic recording. They do play over the top for laughs at times, but the soul of the score exists in the two themes they provide for the main characters. The bulk of the music is conveyed by a moderate string orchestra with woodwind and piano layers, aided periodically by playfully light percussion for innocence and brass for bloated nobility. The accordion makes a few notable appearances in the score, both carrying the melodic lines and as a supporting accent. For the machine gun play in the final third, the composers add synthetic elements and exotic percussion, with electric guitars assisting at times, too. Choral explosions mark one notably demented cue. The tone of the genuine character moments is thus charming to a fault, which is the point, but listeners will likely best recall the moments of overt humor in the music. The action music is heavily inspired by generic Lorne Balfe thriller tones in "Diner Kidnapping" (laced with wild accordion), and the exotic action percussion akin to David Arnold in "Heart of the Jungle" is strikingly cool. The ensemble suspense of "The Closet" and militaristic alternative with percussion and strings in "On the Spot" are gripping. Nothing can compete, however, with the ensemble and choir pomposity from The Lord of the Rings for the unforgettable "LSD Trip" sequence, a tremendous fantasy cue for the hilarious scene. With remarkable success, Birenberg and Robinson maintain their main theme for Yankovic himself throughout every corner of Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, applying the idea via various instrumental colors in highly appropriate ways per the needs of each parody scene. The theme is superb and highly redemptive, with a yearning, incomplete phrase followed by a longer one to denote completion. An ascendant secondary phrase is also very warm, and surrounding connective motifs often ring of James Horner's pleasant character mode of the early 1990's. Just the two main phrases emerge at 0:36 into "Weird" on full strings, followed on oboe, strings, and charming percussion at 0:09 into "The Accordion," after which the idea shifts to noble horns at 0:47 (accompany young Al's first sight of an accordion) and xylophone at 1:06 for his sense of wonderment. A lamenting variation at 0:38 into "The Closet" accompanies his father's destruction of his accordion but turns inspirational on woodwinds over string ostinatos at 1:23. The theme is finally heard from an accordion for a brief moment at the start of "Epiphany" and smartly switches to inform the rhythmic, momentous fantasy later in the cue as Yankovic's brain makes the "My Balogna" connection while constructing a sandwich. The melody extends out of the secondary family theme at 0:16 into "My Parents" and becomes somber at 0:34 into "Write Your Own Songs" before returning to the noble horn at 1:01. In the aforementioned "LSD Trip" whirlwind, the main theme is massive on brass at 0:09 over fantasy explosions, and a trumpet carries it at 1:12 over huge chanting and percussive pounding. Anxious fragments of the theme struggle in the first half of "A Parody of 'Eat It'," with nice snippets of accordion taking the melody during the cue's crescendo of angst. A sparse clarinet and piano solos touch the theme in "Drunk Driving," the piano stewing on it over slightly tense strings at 0:13 into "You're All I've Got" and the idea mixed into the exotic percussion and synths at 0:28 into "Certified Platinum" before its confident hero mode on brass at 0:57 accompanies the revelation of his bulletproof chains of records on his chest. The theme suffers on strings over synths at 1:01 into "It's All Business" but becomes redemptive thereafter in the score as Yankovic shows the obligatory reconciliation with his father. An honorable trumpet carries the idea at 1:18 into "Dad Apologizes" and builds to a huge ensemble performance at 1:37 for their embrace. The composers' handling of the main theme in the final two scenes of Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is so emotionally overblown that some listeners may find it obnoxiously sappy, but the performance inflection is perfect. It spills out on strings with newfound resolve at 0:24 into "Al's Speech," where it really milks the secondary ascending sequence of the melody. Then, as recognition that Hans Zimmer has made solo cello performances the obligatory representation of sadly compelling heart, Birenberg and Robinson supply it for the main theme in a melancholy rendition over piano at the outset of "In Memoriam," a scene full of photoshopped pictures of Yankovic's life after his killing. The full ensemble offers a heroic conclusion at 1:59 as a one-eyed Madonna visits Yankovic's grave, the accordion taking the theme out at the end as a gloriously lovely conclusion. That is, until dissonant synths and strings burst forth for the zombie hand pulling Madonna into the grave. Meanwhile, the composers' family theme (mainly for the father) is another nice narrative loop, heard first at 0:16 into "Weird" on oboe, piano, and strings and starting "My Parents" on piano before extending into a pretty, new idea. At the end of the film, it is slight and tender at 0:03 into "The Factory" and opens "Dad Apologizes" and "Raised Amish" lightly. The latter cue expands to a more lyrical variant on solo fiddle for an Americana effect, accordion delicately taking over the theme and the cue concluding with the main theme's secondary sequence in James Horner rumbling formation. The family theme makes an appropriate cameo at 0:06 on oboe over hopeful strings and woodwinds in "Al's Speech" as well. Finally, a love theme for Madonna has hints of Silver Age romanticism in its gorgeous piano incarnation during all of "Al and Madonna," the massive ensemble rendition at 2:30 during the ridiculous kissing sequence not to be missed. In one of the score's few faults, though, this idea is absent thereafter, the other scenes with Madonna and Yankovic unscored and "It's All Business" failing to take it to dark new territory. Still, Birenberg and Robinson's score for Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is a qualified success. It may not be as resoundingly robust in stature as the typical Theodore Shapiro parody work, but it far exceeds what you receive from John Debney and others writing this kind of music during this era. The 78-minute album, available on CD and vinyl for retro enthusiasts, is an excellent souvenir of the film, the songs placed up front, the source tracks in the middle, and the score thereafter. While laughing at "Eat It" and "Amish Paradise" is always tempting, the revelation here is the surprisingly engaging and narratively effective score. ****
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 77:48
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes extensive credits but no extra information about the score or film.
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