Man On the Moon (1999)
Directed by Milos Forman
Written by Scott Alexander & Larry Karaszewski

If ever a performer embodied the "life as art" approach of the Advanced Theory of Comedy, it was Andy Kaufman. The guy willingly subverted his career, his relationships, and even his life itself in pursuit of a performance style as alienating as it was conceptually hilarious. Avoiding the obvious, inverting expectations, toying with perception, never letting anyone in on his intent, and taking his pranks to the furthest possible extreme … yes, all admirable, yet as Man On the Moon illustrates, not particularly likeable.

This film completes a loose trilogy of pop-culture icon biopics penned by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, following the brilliant Ed Wood and the mostly heinous The People Vs. Larry Flynt. It does a good job of spelling out Kaufman's hard-to-get comedic style so that the masses might latch on to the fact that there can be much more to a joke than Austin Powers peeing in a fountain.

As with Kaufman's real life, though, most people will simply be put off by his complete dedication to what might be a pure, but is certainly a self-indulgent, sense of humor. Personally, I think Kaufman was brilliant, but more and more, I find myself asking: "Is it worth it?"

The irony of Kaufman's early death from cancer, and the fact that most people, even those close to him, suspected he was faking it, was surely not lost on him. But I can't help but think that it was some kind of karmic comeuppance for a life lived in almost sheer negativity.

Which is suprising, given the "real" Kaufman's passion for childhood nostalgia and Transcendental Meditation™ Somewhere along the way he lost himself in his art, and suffered for this. So really, God gets credit for Kaufman's best joke.

Man On the Moon is informative and interesting, but not particularly fun. It leaves large gaps of understanding between Kaufman the performer and Kaufman the man … though those are gaps Andy himself left in life. But the script doesn't seem to even try to reconcile the sensitive new-age guy with the largely brutal antagonist who was his copilot. And Jim Carrey's perfectly mimicked but emotionally shallow performance doesn't shed any light.

Fun moments are had in recreations of the "Taxi" set (complete with original cast members in bad wigs) and the famous "Fridays" debacle (with Norm MacDonald as Michael Richards and Caroline Rhea as Melanie Chartoff, no less!). Paul Giamatti, as Kaufman's even more subversive writer Bob Zmuda, steals the show with a number of brilliantly-performed scenes. That guy is becoming some kind of legend, I swear.

The lion's share of laughs, and indeed the thrust of the story itself, is provided by Kaufman's alter-ego Tony Clifton, who blusters obnoxiously through every scene, reinforcing the intended awkwardness of Kaufman's humor. Really, The Tony Clifton Story would have made a far more fascinating film, but then you'd lose the college hipster crowd plunking down their money on behalf of REM.

Review by Hong