Written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski (or, as we like to spell it, Krzyzewski), the ruling biographers of pop culture, Man on the Moon is a character study of sorts of the impenetrably bizarre Andy Kaufman. It's rather a lost cause to try to explain the inexplicable, so the movie mainly plays like the Andy Kaufman special I saw on Comedy Central: a bunch of clips of Andy's greatest hits, only here re-enacted by Jim Carrey. I'm not complaining; the movie was very entertaining and offered as much insight as is probably possible. The three of us who saw it talked afterwards and each had different interpretations of what we'd seen. Personally, I came away with an image of Kaufman as an overgrown kid: he honestly didn't realize that people weren't in on the joke in some of his wackier stunts that could come off as mean-spirited. He wanted to be the greatest comic in the world, yet he happily did gags that only he and his buddy would get, just because he thought they were funny. That's his refrain: when someone protests one of his pranks, he says disbelievingly, "But it's funny!"
Jim Carrey, as you've probably heard, spookily channels Kaufman. (Still, as good as his performance was, I have to say I've been more impressed by Matt Damon, Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, and Hilary Swank, all of whom truly became their characters in a way that Carrey just doesn't achieve. I couldn't forget I was watching Jim Carrey imitating Andy Kaufman in the way that I could with those other actors.) Paul Giametti is also terrific as Bob Zmuda, Kaufman's partner in crime. In fact, the only sour note in the cast comes from the blank-eyed, fish-lipped Courtney Love as Kaufman's girlfriend. Love is one of those people that you can only stare at in bemusement, wondering, "Who thought hiring her was a good idea, and how do I get some of those drugs he was on?"
I highly
recommend Man on the Moon, though it can't nudge The
Talented Mr. Ripley out of my head. For those of you who
I haven't talked to recently, I have to reiterate and reinforce my
recommendation
of Ripley. That movie's burrowed inside me and occupied my
thoughts
in a way few others have this year. I rarely see movies twice in
a theater, but I'll be going back to get another look at Ripley
as soon as I've knocked a few more movies off my list.
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