1999 was a big year for movies. It was the year that The Matrix’s slow-motion bullet influenced action movies for years to come. It was the year American Beauty won Best Picture at the Academy Awards and Oscar fans have been arguing about it ever since. It was the year Pokémon jumped from Gameboys and TV to the big screen. And worst of all, it was the year that disappointed a generation of Star Wars fans with the release of The Phantom Menace.
To celebrate that landmark year in film’s 20th Anniversary, The Pop Break continues its year-long retrospective of 1999’s most influential (at least to us) films, with staff writer Michael Vacchiano, looking back at the Andy Kaufman biopic, Man on the Moon starring Jim Carrey and directed by Oscar winner Milos Forman.
“You’re insane! But you might also be brilliant!”
That’s the initial reaction that comedian/entertainer Andy Kaufman (Jim Carrey) receives upon meeting his soon-to-be agent George Shapiro (Danny DeVito) early on in 1999’s Man on the Moon. It’s a rather simple and direct analysis of the film’s enigmatic subject, but it’s also a great set-up for a trip into the mind of Kaufman himself … at least the cinematic version. Directed by two-time Academy Award winner Milos Forman, the film still remains an intriguing and satisfying window into the late performer’s unusual yet wholly human world.
The plot of Man on the Moon, like most biopics on people in show business, chronicles the trials and tribulations of the main character’s career. Kaufman starts off doing stand-up in small comedy clubs, whose unconventional routine catches the eye of Shapiro and is signed as his newest client. He begrudgingly takes a role on the sitcom Taxi, who turn the “foreign man” character from his act into the naïve and goofy mechanic Latka Gravas.
Andy’s hatred for the job soon instigates a years-long volatile relationship with network television as a whole. Those who have seen Kaufman’s unfiltered real-life appearances on Saturday Night Live, Fridays, and Late Night with David Letterman (which are depicted here) know what I’m talking about.
The film’s title is taken from the eponymous 1992 song by legendary alternative rock band R.E.M., which is appropriate given Kaufman’s penchant for swaying from the norm. His outside-the-box performance style included his beloved Elvis impersonations blended with singing the Mighty Mouse theme. But Man on the Moon also doesn’t shy away from Andy’s history of antagonizing both audience members and costars. It’s all here, from reciting the entirety of The Great Gatsby during stand-up, to causing chaos on the Taxi set as his alter ego, the obnoxious and sleazy lounge singer Tony Clifton.
The film also does an accurate presentation of Kaufman’s strange foray into the world of professional wrestling. Constantly inciting fans by wrestling women as the self-proclaimed inter-gender champion, his side career soon led to his memorable on-screen feud with future WWE Hall of Famer Jerry “The King” Lawler in Memphis, TN. As a pro-wrestling fan myself, there’s a term in the sport known as kayfabe, which simply put is when a performer blurs the lines between fiction and reality. Kaufman may qualify as an early example of such with his role as an in-ring villain, as he loved to fool audiences and keep them on their toes.
But other fascinating elements of the man’s personality get fair treatment in the film as well. Kaufman’s spiritual nature was evident in his practicing of transcendental meditation, as well as his childlike affinity for milk and cookies. He invited the audience members out for said snack after his performance at Carnegie Hall, a life-long personal dream that would inevitably be his swan song. In 1984 Kaufman passed away from lung cancer but ironically, the public as well as his own friends and family were slightly skeptical upon him announcing his diagnosis, as they knew the tricks that Andy was able to pull.
Even 20 years after Man on the Moon’s release, it’s still hard to think of anyone who could do equal justice to playing Kaufman besides Jim Carrey. Already a Hollywood megastar at the time, the former Ace Ventura does an incredible job showing all of Kaufman’s talents and oddities, not to mention his fears and insecurities. Carrey always excels at balancing comedy and drama when he has the right material. Those who’ve seen his work in The Truman Show and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind will attest to that. His performance here easily ranks up there with those others as amongst his career best.
While DeVito has a great track record in comedy himself, he mostly plays straight man to Carrey this time around. Even so, he does a more than fine job as the loyal Shapiro, who is constantly doing damage control on his client’s behalf. Courtney Love, front woman of the band Hole, tames her wild persona to play Lynne Margulies, the sweet-natured love of Andy’s life. And rising actor at the time Paul Giamatti helped his own career ascent doing great work here as Kaufman’s longtime friend/collaborator and sidekick Bob Zmuda.
Before focusing the camera into Andy’s life, director Milos Forman had long ago already established his legacy as a filmmaker. The Czech director is responsible for helming the revered 1975 classic One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which swept all the major categories at that year’s Oscars. In between then and this, Forman cut his teeth doing films on other real-life men who were considered outcasts. Whether it was about immature musical prodigies (Amadeus) or striving pornography publishers (The People vs. Larry Flynt), Forman certainly had some practice when it came time to tell Kaufman’s story.
Man on the Moon also spawned a sequel to the song of the same name, as R.E.M. contributed “The Great Beyond” to the film’s soundtrack. Going even further, the 2017 Netflix documentary Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond went into greater detail on the making of the film, as well as the connections between Carrey and Kaufman. Nevertheless, the legacy of said movie will apparently never outgrow that of the man himself. But to still even be honored on celluloid as well as he is, Andy may just channel his foreign man character one more time to say… “TANK YOU VEDDY MUCH!”
