'Tight & Nerdy'
Boobs and accordions.
Dear Moviegoers,
It's amazing to me just how much the offbeat and sweetly hilarious music of Weird Al Yankovic has resonated with people over the decades. Is it really so "weird" to spoof and make light of someone else's pop art? Of course not. Tape recorders and VCRs introduced kids at heart to make their own radio programs and fan films, mashing up original efforts with the previously made, into something entirely new.
For the documentary Tight & Nerdy, burlesque performances are a continuation of that tradition. A celebration of it, even.
These half-nude revues of dance, teasing, stripping, music, and story, featuring the music of Weird Al in both the background and foreground, are led by a "core four" of ladies, each evenly matched with one another's humor and passion. Throughout the film, the women deftly define their interpretation of burlesque by their personal experiences growing up in households of restrictions, trauma, and old understandings of what's "appropriate" in society.
It's easy to see how Weird Al's work could pierce through such depressing episodes of life, as, not unlike burlesque, his songs are meant to bring smiles to faces. Showcasing the absurd with firmly planted feet, Tight & Nerdy is a well-placed blast of thoughtful joy, turning boobs and rhinestones into acts of revelation. Making jokes from vulnerable spaces is rather brave, and braving all while nearly bare-assed makes it all the more courageous.
Out of the core four, it's Odessa's story that I attached myself to the most. Her personality is one of quick wit and precise delivery of fun attitudes, yet she is someone holding much emotional weight. Other than a back problem that could potentially end her performing days, her family history involves a lack of parental affection and survival through getting away from toxicity. Tight & Nerdy is an entirely open wound of a movie, especially when the women let the cameras into their off-stage worlds. Agreeing to make this film at all only further shows how inclusive, celebratory, responsible, and healing things can be when you mix weird with weird. When you get tight with other nerds.
Weird Al himself offers up observations throughout, almost always cracking himself up with silly but honest anecdotes and conclusions. It's the women, the core four of the troupe, who make the movie worth its words in spoof. When they visit the biggest ball of twine in Minnesota, it's a cackle of brilliance and a lovely day. How can adults maintain such childhood revelry, especially coming from different kinds of trials and tribulations?
It's not easy, but it is weird. 4/5
Tight & Nerdy will screen and stream (in-person and online) as part of the 2026 SF IndieFest, from 2/5 to 2/15.