Man On The Moon
Andy Kaufman remains to this day perhaps the biggest enigma of all modern celebrities, not so much a âcomedianâ as he was a conceptual, abstract comedic performance artist, a guy who was all too ready, willing and able to elicit just as much of a negative reaction out of a crowd as he would in getting a positive one. Many have speculated and thrown out theories as to what was actually âwrongâ with Kaufman (unhappy childhood, severe bipolar, experimentation with acid and other psychedelics) in an attempt to figure out why he didnât opt into having a more âconventionalâ career, but one thing remains for sure: he was one of the most influential comedy figures of the early 1980s, with a generation of performers coming after him who at least tried to emulate his anarchic style of humor and entertainment usually with limited success. Even his own death remains in question to this day, coming about in 1984 from âlung cancerâ even though he didnât smoke, setting off continued rumors worldwide including urban legends of him reappearing in certain (usually remote) regions of the world to perform and leaving no doubt to the few who would see him as to his true identity. When it came time in 1999 to make an âofficialâ biographical film of his life, nearly every living entertainment figure who had known or worked with him seemed to jump onboard for at least a cameo appearance from Danny DeVito and the cast of Taxi to SNLâs Lorne Michaels to his old manager George Shapiro (telling the funniest joke in the film) to Kaufmanâs old pro wrestling rival Jerry âThe Kingâ Lawler (unfortunately bringing his commentating sidekick Jim Ross along in what must have been a package deal when original Memphis commentator Lance Russell was also onhand here as a ring announcer and could have easily recreated his commentary role from that time much like Lawler did as himself). The real free for all would come with the lead casting process as carried out by Oscar winning director Milos Forman, starting when the role of Kaufman was offered point blank to Gary Oldman who quickly turned it down. With Oldman out of the running, all hell would break loose as Nicolas Cage expressed interest but when asked to audition, he refused and walked away. In the days and weeks to come, Forman and the producers entertained auditions from John Cusack, Kevin Spacey and Hank Azaria with Johnny Depp also straight up being offered the part before he turned it down. It all came down to being either Jim Carrey or Edward Norton, with Forman reportedly leaning towards Norton but ultimately being overruled by the producers who saw Carrey as being the more bankable name of the two at the box office. In the end, it didnât really matter since the film did abysmal business (and was Carreyâs first ever flop) and it also killed some very specific plans to have Carrey actually step into the ring with Lawler at that yearâs impending Wrestlemania in order to have their grudge match âfor realâ. Whether it was that the publicâs interest in the legend of Kaufman (or Carrey) had waned considerably or maybe it was just bad marketing, Carrey was forced to settle for another Golden Globe win that came with NO Oscar nomination as had been the case with The Truman Show the year before (he had never quite lived down the Ace Ventura talking out of his ass bit from many moons ago). More importantly, the failure had cooled down many conspiracy theoristsâ beliefs that had the film been successful, Kaufman himself would have emerged from out of hiding to return to the pop culture scene, but was discouraged to do so by the film bombing (even as a more recent theory has him coming back as right wing blogger Alex Jones of Infowars fame). A popular urban legend surrounding the filming had even been that Carrey was personally coached on the set by a âfamily memberâ of Kaufman (i.e. Kaufman himself) and the concept of Kaufman having faked his own death is even recognized in the actual film as his cancer diagnosis is met with bewildered doubts and the final scene (with Carrey in makeup onstage performing as Tony Clifton even though weâve just witnessed Andyâs funeral) practically rubs the viewersâ noses in that very idea. As for Carrey and his actual performance, while his notably sharp facial features contrast heavily with the real Andyâs comparably smooth complexion, he does get the personality, the mannerisms and (most incredibly) the VOICE down cold, whether it be Kaufmanâs normal soft spoken demeanor, his trademark Foreign Man accent (which to Kaufmanâs chagrin was whored off irreparably into Latka on Taxi) or his classic âbad guyâ routine when he started wrestling women in his nightclub act which would lead to his eventual showdown with Lawler. Carrey takes on the near impossible task of getting into the head of a guy who took great pains to conceal his true self from the public with the only guy who MIGHT have known him well enough to comment on that being Bob Zmuda (played in the movie by Paul Giamatti) who not only served as an Executive Producer on this but has also been notorious for fanning those same conspiracy flames as well. Zmuda is introduced to most people by Kaufman as being his âwriterâ and he certainly worked with and collaborated with Kaufman on nearly every aspect of his career run, most notably Tony Clifton, a riotously bad and toxically obnoxious Vegas lounge singer for whom Kaufman did everything possible to separate himself from in order for Clifton to be considered a real life entertainment personality in his own right even as Andy would play him onstage as the biggest asshole imaginable and even switch out with Zmuda playing him in special cases where they could be seen in the same place at the same time. The movie is funny, fast paced and at the most unexpected point, touching, that being when the college crowd heckling him on stage to do Latka instead get a very proper reading of F. Scott Fitzgeraldâs The Great Gatsby, which clears most of the room except for a very few (i.e. his true fans) who stay until the very end of the reading and even applaud, a testament to any artist who has ever had the most absolute resolution to never compromise whatever they do as their art. Then thereâs the wrestling scenes and while it was great to see Lawler still doing his thing since he had never aged all those years (including recreating the infamous Letterman appearance which remains a benchmark of television history), having Jim âJRâ Ross calling the match almost reduces it to being a typical episode of Monday Night Raw, even as the original, drawn out feud between Kaufman and Lawler (which raged on in Memphis for over 2 years all the way up to Kaufmanâs âpassingâ) remains easily the most audacious and certainly the funniest storyline in wrestling history, the clear inspiration for the later Steve Austin vs Vince McMahon feud where weâd have the biggest and most popular star around going to war with a âheelâ (bad guy) who himself was NOT a wrestler but would use paid off stooges and various other dirty tricks to get even while always avoiding his greatest fear that the good guy would get his hands on him in a fair fight. And THAT is where the movie takes Kaufman and positions its stance on his style of comedy and entertainment, that you NEVER knew if anything that the guy did was necessarily serious or not and in many ways that was his fully intended impression that he wanted people to have: that everything was a lie, an illusion, and only by breaking down the mental barriers of what and what not to expect can we somehow find the truth at the very end, almost like an awakening process which some would say has not yet been completed by Kaufman himself. Even as the movie fumbles around depicting Kaufmanâs forays into transcendental meditation and the relationship with his (composited from many real life examples) girlfriend played by Courtney Love, it does succeed in showing how Kaufman better than anyone could âworkâ people into believing almost anything he wanted (which is why wrestling was perfect for him) and nobody moreso than his perpetually befuddled manager (DeVito) whom himself never knows what to expect from his own client, which is how one realizes from the surreal opening scene to the strangely uplifting for the future(?) ending that nothing is real if youâre always questioning your own realityâŠ
9/10