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"Full
'Moon'"
by Scott Mantz
"Man on the Moon"
Jim Carrey, Danny DeVito
Directed by Milos Forman
It takes a certain
kind of person to act like a fool in front of a group of total strangers,
but that's what stand-up comedians do. If you're filming a movie,
you can try scenes again and again until you get it right, but on
stage, it's different. If you hit, you hit big. If you fall, you
fall hard. While most comedians simply shoot their mouths off telling
joke after joke, few actually do the unthinkable--include the audience
in as part of the act. Andy Kaufman wound up being so far ahead
of his time with this approach that few people ever really got the
joke. As Jim Carrey proves in director Milos Forman's latest film,
he's one of the few who did. By trying to uncover the man behind
the myth, the excellent "Man on the Moon" reveals that the man was
the myth.
If Shakespeare
said "all the world's a stage", then Andy Kaufman (Jim Carrey) certainly
lived by this rule. Ever since he was a kid, Andy was always performing.
Only on stage would he be able to find an outlet for his bizarre
sense of humor. Thanks to his "foreign man" and Elvis impersonations,
he got the attention of manager Bob Shapiro (Danny DeVito). He gave
Andy his big break by casting him on the TV series "Taxi", which
he agreed to do only if he got his own TV special. The role of Latka
was tame compared to the even more outlandish tricks Kaufman had
up his sleeve. Whether it was as his alter ego Tony Clifton or as
a chauvinistic would-be pro wrestler, Kaufman was constantly pushing
the boundaries and testing the audience to see how far he could
go.
Whether it was
on TV or in the wrestling arena, he knew which buttons to push to
cause a commotion. The problem was that the audience could never
tell what was real or what was just a joke. The fact that they were
in on it the whole time was something that never even occurred to
them. Actually, the last laugh is on Kaufman. Already dying of cancer,
he travels to the Philippi nes to take part in a supposed miraculous
operation. When he realizes that it's all just a hoax, he can't
help but chuckle at the irony of his life.
Even someone
as over the top as Kaufman found himself to be limited in his scope.
Never known for being a crowd-pleaser, he would sometimes turn to
reading "The Great Gatsby" cover to cover just to make a point.
When it got really bad he turned to Tony Clifton, lounge lizard.
If Kaufman was the id, then Clifton was the superego. Through Clifton,
he was able to release all the hostility he had pent up inside of
him and throw it right back at his audience. Everyone knew that
Clifton and Kaufman were the same person, but it didn't matter.
Clifton was downright vicious to the crowd, and they bought into
it.
Jim Carrey doesn't
simply play Kaufman. He becomes Kaufman. The resemblance is so frightening,
you'd think Carrey actually channeled Kaufman's spirit to do the
role. Obviously, it's Carrey's funhouse, but Danny DeVito also puts
in a fine performance as Kaufman's manager. He believes in Kaufman
and becomes somewhat of a father figure to him. Courtney Love plays
Kaufman's girlfriend, Lynne. By trying to get to know him better
as a person, she winds up being part of his act.
If you're a
Kaufman fan, then this one is for you. If you're not hip on his
style, then forget about it. You're not going to leave the theater
knowing anything more about the person than you did going in, but
at least you'll be privy to the big screen version of "Andy's Greatest
Hits (and Misses)". We never get a better understanding of the man
behind Kaufman, but that's the whole point. Nobody understood Kaufman.
Not his parents. Not his manager. Not his girlfriend. Not his partner.
Not even Kaufman himself. If you don't get that when the movie's
over, then the joke's on you.
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