Directed by: Milos Forman
Starring: Jim Carrey, Danny DeVito, Courtney Love, Paul Giamatti, Jerry "The King" Lawler
Andy Kaufman didn't necessarily perform for audiences as much as performed for himself. His act was a high-wire mish mosh of bad jokes, eccentricity, and performance art. He didn't want to make audiences laugh as much as he wanted to keep them guessing. Is he putting them on? Where is the joke? Are they the joke? There hasn't been anyone quite like Andy Kaufman since his untimely death in 1984 from lung cancer. In a cruel twist of fate which Andy himself may have found amusing, he never smoked but still died from lung cancer at the age of 35. Maybe the universe decided to make Andy the butt of its cosmic joke.
Jim Carrey doesn't play Andy as much as embodies his wacky spirit. You would think such a role would give Carrey the license to run amok, but director Forman (Amadeus, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest) wisely reins him in. We don't witness Carrey playing Andy. We witness Carrey be Andy, which is crucial to the film's success. Man on the Moon follows the biopic formula as we see Andy grow from peculiar kid to peculiar adult. He was born to be on stage, although doing what we don't exactly know. He starts out in the LA comedy scene, is discovered by agent George Shapiro (DeVito), and rises to stardom as Latka Gavras on Taxi.
Not content with mere TV stardom, Andy pushes boundaries and his audience's finite patience with his odd stand up act. He takes on like-minded comic partner Bob Zmuda (Giamatti) and the two engage in elaborate hoaxes and pranks which amuse mostly themselves. We picture them cracking themselves up as they plot and execute these jokes on whichever hapless sap has the misfortune of being the victim. Shapiro spends most of his time putting out Andy's fires as he burns one showbiz bridge after another. Andy turns his attention to a stint in Memphis wrestling and a feud with icon Jerry "The King" Lawler (playing himself) which culminates in a Letterman appearance in which The King smacked Andy (attired with a neck brace from a recent match with Lawler) across the face. Very hard I might add.
Man on the Moon plays loose with some facts, which comes as no surprise to anyone who has ever seen a biopic. In the film, he meets future fiancée Lynne Margulies (Love) on a TV talk show promoting his wrestling angle, while in real life they met on the set of Kaufman's My Breakfast with Blassie long after his famed match with Lawler. The concert at Carnegie Hall was held during Kaufman's heyday and not as a comeback of sorts in this film. Even if it plays loose with facts, it remains true to Kaufman's anarchic spirit. I can't say Andy Kaufman was funny, but his ability to keep you watching made him just as fascinating all the same. I admire his ability to gain heat from the crowd during his Memphis run. Most celebrities involved in wrestling in any way at the time were supportive of babyfaces, so as not to tarnish their image. Kaufman did what he always did, which was to go against the norm and play a great heel. It took a certain amount of nerve to do that, just as Man on the Moon has the nerve to not romanticize its subject, but to observe him and allow us to decide whether he was funny and what exactly he was up to this time.
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