Man On The Moon (1999) ****

As biopics go Man On The Moon (1999) is one of the better ones (and I say that as someone who’s not terribly into the genre). I think that’s because Milos Forman is quite adept at them, having directed two excellent examples—Amadeus (1984) and The People Vs. Larry Flynt (1996)—prior to tackling the story of Andy Kaufman.

MOTM is a very good film but not a masterpiece. What is masterful though is Jim Carrey’s portrayal as Kaufman. It’s truly one of the all-time great screen performances. I don't think that anyone else could have done it justice and that's due to Carrey's 1000% committal to the role. Carrey’s brilliance on screen highlights Kaufman’s own brilliance (and makes one want to revisit the latter’s work). It must also be mentioned that Bob Zmuda deserves a good deal of credit for Kaufman's work and success as an iconoclast.

Kaufman, that one-of-a-kind obnoxious prankster, is a figure that simply couldn’t exist in the same way anymore, for multiple reasons. Andy would simply offend too many people these days (and he offended plenty in his day) with his broad antagonism and it would be near impossible for him to remain as mysterious as he (and his alter ego Tony Clifton) managed to, when we have the internet and the 24-hour news/social media cycle.

The film itself rearranges events and leaves plenty of things out. In the prologue, where Carrey addresses the audience directly, he even admits to manipulating viewers for “dramatic purposes.” I’m OK with that, when it comes to MOTM. I attribute my acceptance in that matter to something that Milos quoted Peter Shaffer, the writer of Amadeus, saying to him—that “history is the summary of facts but drama is the summary of the spirit of facts.” 

*I also highly recommend watching Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond (2017) (review) as a companion piece to MOTM.