Man on the Moon Review
by Edward Johnson-Ott (ejohnsonott AT prodigy DOT net)December 23rd, 1999
Man on the Moon (1999)
Jim Carrey, Danny DeVito, Courtney Love, Paul Giamatti, Vincent
Schiavelli, Peter Bonerz, Jerry Lawler, Gerry Becker, Leslie
Lyles. Screenplay, Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski. Directed by
Milos Forman. 118 minutes.
Rated R, 2 stars (out of five stars)
Review by Ed Johnson-Ott, NUVO Newsweekly
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When I first learned Jim Carrey would star in a film based on the life
of performance artist Andy Kaufman, a number of questions sprang to
mind. Would Carrey be able to pull off a credible impression of the
late performer? Would the film accurately capture Kaufman's peculiar
appeal? And, most importantly, was this movie really necessary?
The answers turn out to be yes, yes and no.
Andy Kaufman first reached a mass audience on the debut of "Saturday
Night Live," with a hilarious bit where he lip-synched one sentence
from the "Mighty Mouse" theme song. After a number of additional "SNL"
appearances, he reached stardom on "Taxi" as Latka Gravas, the lovable
immigrant mechanic whose halting English was supplemented by long
streams of Latka's deliciously odd native language.
Always the provocateur, Kaufman periodically turned up in another
persona, that of Tony Clifton; an extremely obnoxious lounge lizard
type. Kaufman also became obsessed with wrestling women, alienating a
large segment of his fans along the way. After "Taxi" completed its
run, his controversial behavior led to a call-in ballot on "SNL,"
where the audience voted by a large margin to ban the performer from
the show forever. Later, when it was announced that the 35-year-old
was dying of cancer, many wondered if this was yet another put-on.
In "Man on the Moon" (the title comes from the wonderful tribute song
by R.E.M.), Jim Carrey does a startlingly accurate impersonation of
Kaufman onstage. He really nails him; sounding, moving and even
looking like the off-the-wall entertainer. His Kaufman impression is
as good as Kaufman's legendary Elvis impression. But that's not enough
to justify a movie. I wanted to learn more about what made Andy tick,
or at least see some juicy behind-the-scenes material. Instead, "Man
on the Moon" is content to merely reenact oft-seen Kaufman
performances. Comedy Central frequently runs two thorough
documentaries on Andy Kaufman, and E!, MSNBC and A&E have all done
competent biographies on him. Why watch an impersonation when footage
of the actual man is so accessible?
They could have done more. Bob Zmuda, Kaufman's closest collaborator,
was intimately involved in the production of the film. Why didn't we
get the story of how the two got together, or some scenes of them
working as a team, plotting out the various stunts? Zmuda often played
the heavily made-up Tony Clifton in Kaufman's absence. How about a
little explanation on how the character was cooked up?
Continuing my rant, how about an explanation about the wrestling with
women business? In the film, people repeatedly ask Kaufman why he
persists in pursuing such a career-damaging bit, but answers are never
provided. In addition to Zmuda, Kaufman's manager and girlfriend were
also involved with the making of the movie. It's hard to believe that,
over the course of years, he never gave them any answers.
As good as Carrey is during the onstage segments, he seems lost when
the spotlights go off, geeking it up excessively during personal
moments. I've seen interviews with Kaufman and he didn't spend every
waking moment looking at people with bug-eyed expressions. I suspect
Carrey did the goon routine in the intimate scenes because he didn't
have anything else to work with.
I also suspect the filmmakers wanted it that way. I think they believed it would be clever to keep the film as cryptic as Kaufman's various personas. The hook of the movie is that he created so many characters that the real Andy Kaufman got lost along the way, but that feels like cheap pathos to me, and I expect more than that from a director of Milos Forman's caliber. After all, this is the man behind "Amadeus" and "The People vs. Larry Flynt."
Forman starts the film off in style, with Kaufman addressing the
audience in his foreign man character, complaining about how his story
was handled and then running the closing credits while shooing us out
of the theater. But after this promising surreal beginning, the
production turns into a series of obvious vignettes depicting Andy's
greatest hits.
The low point comes late in the film, when a desperate Kaufman goes to
the Philippines in search of a cancer cure from "psychic surgeons,"
con men who claimed to be able to prod a person's stomach with their
hands and miraculously remove tumors without an incision. In the real
world, these scam artists fooled thousands of cancer patients before
their trick was finally exposed. But in the movie, Andy glances down
and immediately spots the deception. The camera then comes in for a
close-up of Kaufman smiling wryly; the prankster fooled by another
group of pranksters. How tragic. How ironic. What a crock.
I'm glad that "Man on the Moon" has sparked a revival of interest in
Andy Kaufman, but the bottom line is this. As much as I admired
Kaufman's impersonation of Elvis Presley, I would much rather watch a
documentary of the genuine article. And as much as I admire Jim
Carrey's impersonation of Andy Kaufman, I'll skip future viewings of
this superficial recreation and catch one of the numerous
documentaries featuring the real man on cable.
© 1999 Ed Johnson-Ott
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
