Man on the Moon

Man on the Moon (1999) is about Andy Kaufman but refuses to behave like a biopic. Kaufman did not want to be called a comedian; he did not tell jokes, he built situations that made audiences uncomfortable. Rather than explaining his routines the film repeats them, leaving the viewer in the same uncertainty. Jim Carrey never came out of character during the shoot. Playing Tony Clifton, Kaufman's alter ego, he stuffed his clothes with Limburger cheese, something Kaufman had done himself. The behind the scenes footage went unreleased for years. In 2017 it became the documentary Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond, and only then could anyone see the method and what it did to him. Danny DeVito both acts in it and produced it. Real people play themselves, including the wrestler Jerry Lawler and cast members from Taxi. Kevin Spacey, Edward Norton and Nicolas Cage all auditioned for the lead. Miloš Forman directed. It was made for somewhere between 52 and 82 million dollars and took only 47 million in the United States. Carrey won a Golden Globe; the reviews were mixed but nearly everyone agreed about the performance. It runs 118 minutes. Good for: performance art, comedy history, and the riskiest thing Carrey ever did. Less good for: if you do not know Kaufman the film never explains what it is doing. His private life stays thin and the film says nothing about why he was the way he was, which may be deliberate but is still unsatisfying.