"Where Movie Critics Get A Taste Of Their Own Medicine!"

MAN ON THE MOON (1999)

Carrey is magic!
by Herb Kane

January 8, 2000

CRITIC DOCTOR EXAMINES: Roger Ebert (Chicago Sun-Times), Owen Glieberman (Entertainment Weekly), David Ansen (Newsweek), Jim Lane (Sacremento News & Reviews), Ed Johnson-Ott (NUVO Newsweekly), Maitland McDonagh (TV Guide), Steve Murray (Cox News Service), Gary Mairs (culturevulture.net), Edward Margulies (Mr. Showbiz), Elizabeth Weitzman (film.com), Stephen Hunter (Washington Post), Candace Murphy (San Jose Mercury News) and Kevin Maynard (Mr. Showbiz).

(R)

"Hello. I am the Critic Doctor. And this is my review of 'Man on the Moon.' I hope you like it. I know Andy Kaufman would if he were still here. So enjoy! Thank you veddie much. Bye, bye." C.D.

Entertainment Weekly writer, Owen Gleiberman, warns, "Man on the Moon is a brilliant, maniacally funny, and dizzying experience, yet anyone who walks into it expecting to gain entrance to Andy Kaufman's inner world is going to be in for an irreverent shock." Indeed! Those who are not familiar with Andy may have a difficult time understanding this movie. Simply keep this thought in mind: there is no understanding Andy. That's what Andy was all about. He was the master of confusion. Yet critics cry for more detail about the inner Andy which has become a common theme among negative reviews..

In the movie, Andy's manager (played by Danny DeVito) tells Andy (Jim Carrey), "You're insane, but you might also be brilliant." Maybe. No one knows. Film critic Gary Mairs (culturevulture.net) says, "Andy Kaufman was not really a comedian. He was a media terrorist, a prankster who used stand-up as an inroad to a mass audience." Personally, I think he was just a strange and funny guy who reached out to us for his own amusement - and the media welcomed it.

Edward Margulies (Mr. Showbiz) comments, "Whether you come away thinking Kaufman was brilliant or not, you'll be frustratingly undecided whether he was insane, schizo, depressed, or a genius. The film doesn't give a clue....why try and tell a story?"

Candace Murphy (San Jose Mercury News) complains that audiences "will leave the theater with more questions than they had going in," and Ed Johnson-Ott (Nuvo Newsweekly) "wanted to learn more about what made Andy tick."

It's pretty clear the writers (Scott Alexander & Larry Karaszewski) and director (Milos Forman) could not find the right combination or key to open up the complexity of Andy Kaufman. Though this was made very evident in the movie, many critics still ridicule this part of the movie! For example: Andy complains to his girlfriend (Courtney Love), "You don't know the real me." She replies, "There isn't a real you."

Kevin Maynard (Mr. Showbiz) calls this "a cop-out," and Elizabeth Weitzman (film.com) argues, "Anyone who had the intelligence, the sense of humor, and the dogged determination to turn his profession on its head had to have a lot more to him than ever met the eye...perhaps this shockingly conventional biopic is just what Kaufman would have wished for."

Perhaps this was Andy Kaufman's brilliance. Keeping himself a mystery. Keep people wondering so they come back for more. Of course, you couldn't tell that to Kaufman's "Saturday Night Live" audience who voted him off the show. Brilliance mixed with insanity could indeed produce negative reactions. Yet critics like Maitland McDonagh (TV Guide) scoffs, "there's not much in the way of insight into what made Kaufman tick, which is generally acknowledged as a flaw in biopics."

Roger Ebert (Chicago Sun-Times) got it right: "The movie leaves us with a mystery, and it should. In traditional Hollywood biopics, there would be Freudian shorthand to explain everything. Nothing explains Andy Kaufman. If he had been explicable, no one would have wanted to make a movie about him."

Jim Lane (Sacramento News Service) said, "Forman, Alexander, and Karaszewski may not solve the mystery of Kaufman, but they find an approach to their central character that corresponds, in movie-biography terms, to the way that character affected us in real life...it gives the film an air of authenticity." This is, indeed, one of the few biopics that will leave you wondering - and justifiably so. David Ansen (Newsweek) adds, "Forman's decision to stick to the surface is probably, in the end, a wise one. Kaufman always wanted to keep us guessing, and this movie respects his wishes."

Imagine trying to play the part of a man whom you cannot completely define. Candace Murphy said, "Even Carrey seems lost at times, navigating the life of a man that probably neither he nor anyone else has understood." Yet Jim Carrey did it! No matter what you think about the story, most critics agree that Jim Carrey's performance as Andy Kaufman was the magic behind the whole movie.

Newsweek's David Ansen discovered this magic: "Carrey pulls off a neat trick - he gets deeply inside a man who, by his own admission, had no inside to get into."

Carrey did such good acting that some critics say its not really acting. Steve Murray (Cox News Service) contends, "His impersonation of the late Kaufman is often so pitch-perfect, it's more like channeling than acting." Stephen Hunter (Washington Post) said, "I'm not sure if this qualifies as acting. It's some other strange form of show business, as unclassifiable as was Kaufman's original thing. Carrey simply becomes Kaufman."

Carrey's haunting performance was indeed acting - Oscar Award winning acting. Owen Gleiberman summed up Carrey's acting best: "Jim Carrey's performance is an impersonation on the level of genius (he literally brings Kaufman to life)."

This was one of those movies where at the end you sit there motionless in your theater seat and listen to the music and watch the credits roll. And as the credits roll, you again see Andy peek at you from the side of the screen. You might chuckle and remember Andy Kaufman. You might sit and wonder what the heck this guy was about. What did make him tick? Why did he think that making his audience angry was more important than making them laugh? Why would he jeopardize his showbiz success for his own enjoyment? But you sit there bewildered with no answers, as if Andy had just played another joke on you.

Andy's creative collaborator, Bob Zmuda (Paul Giamatti) summed up Kaufman's work in one sentence: "Make them love you, then f--- with their heads." Go figure.

Man did land on the moon, but Andy Kaufman, the man, will forever remain undiscovered.

--THE CRITIC DOCTOR

Movie: Man on the Moon MPAA Rating: (R - Profanity, sexual situations, nudity)
Starring: Jim Carrey, Danny DeVito, Paul Giamatti, Courtney Love, Jerry Lawler
Directed by: Milos Forman Writer: Scott Alexander & Larry Karaszewski
Running time: 1:59 minutes Distributor: Universal Pictures
Cinematography: Anastas N. Michos Music: R.E.M.
Release Date: 12/22/99

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