The Compleat Al (1985)

Directed by

Robert K. Weiss

Genre

mockumentary, musical film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 40m

Rated

NR

Rating

6.5 of 10 from 14 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This mockumentary traces the fictionalized life of musician Weird Al Yankovic from his birth through 1985. It blends real details with invented stories presented as fact, and includes clips from his early music videos and TV specials.

playfulsatiricalupbeatself-awareaffectionategoofyfast-pacedwhimsical

What happens

The Compleat Al is a mockumentary about the life of "Weird Al" Yankovic, from his birth in 1959, to 1985. It was partially written by Yankovic and directed by Jay Levey. An abbreviated version premiered on August 7, 1985 on the Showtime network before the full film was released on video on September 25, 1985. The title of the film is a parody from the 1982 documentary The Compleat Beatles. Although it is a mockumentary, it is roughly based on Yankovic's real life. For example, Yankovic was raised in Lynwood, California, and has a degree in architecture from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. His real-life parents appear in the mockumentary, as does a picture of his real-life childhood house. Because of the mixture of Yankovic's real life and fiction, much of the film's fabricated information was accepted by fans as real, for example, the false information that Yankovic was born in a Saint Vitus hospital (the Catholic patron saint of comedy), or the film's pun which claimed his birth in an elevator signified his "rise to the top." The mockumentary also contains clips from the first three AL-TV specials, and all of Yankovic's music videos up to 1985: "Ricky", "I Love Rocky Road", "Eat It", "I Lost on Jeopardy", "This Is the Life", "Like a Surgeon", "One More Minute", and "Dare to Be Stupid". It also contains an extended version of “Mr Popeil.” The parody also extends to the technical aspects of the film, such as the copyright warning message which starts routinely but escalates to warnings that copying the video may result in damage to your VCR, smoke may come out of your TV set, escalating to possible destruction of the planet due to the greed of the viewer. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

More like this

• "Weird Al" Yankovic: The Ultimate Collection (1993)
• Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022)
• "Weird Al" Yankovic: The Ultimate Video Collection (2003)
• "Weird Al" Yankovic Live! (1999)
• The History of White People in America (1985)
• "Weird Al" Yankovic: The Videos (1998)
• This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
• Zelig (1983)