Danny DeVito and Jim Carrey in "Man on the Moon."

MOVIE INFORMATION

With 10 as a must-see, Jack gives this film a: Stars: Jim Carrey Director: Milos Forman Rated: R, with strong profanity Length: 118 minutes

ROCHESTERCRITIQUE

Having seen this film, how would you rate it? 10 5 9 4 8 3 7 2 6 1

By Jack Garner
Democrat and Chronicle

(Dec. 22, 1999) -- As the new biopic Man on the Moon amply demonstrates, the late Andy Kaufman was no comedian. His brief flurry of fame 20 years ago established him as comedy's quintessential anti-star.

"I don't do jokes," he tells his manager at one point. "I don't even know what's funny."

No kidding.

As brilliantly played by Jim Carrey, Kaufman is an eccentric performance artist who measures his success by the volume of hate mail. Or, as an observer puts it in Man on the Moon, he's "a professional ass----."

There have been other artists who've antagonized audiences, but Kaufman elevated it to an art form. This was especially true when he assumed the identity of the truly repulsive lounge singer Tony Clifton.

If any performer ever wanted to clear a room, it was Kaufman-as-Clifton. On the other hand, Kaufman once famously took an entire Carnegie Hall audience out for milk and cookies after a show.

The only time most Americans enjoyed Kaufman was when he played a sweetly simple immigrant named Latka, during his six-year stint on TV's Taxi.

So, of course, Taxi was the one gig Kaufman hated. He did everything he could to make life difficult on the set and joyfully celebrated the end of the run.

He then took his assault comedy on the road for an increasingly bizarre series of wrestling matches with women, culminating in an infamous feud with real-life male wrestler Jerry Lawler.

It all came to an abrupt and early end -- a tragic cosmic joke -- when he was found to have terminal cancer.

As directed by Oscar winner Milos Forman, Man on the Moon gets all the surface things right and is artfully crafted. The various Kaufman incidents are recounted -- the famous and the infamous, the obnoxious and the sweet -- but no attempt is ever made to explain Kaufman's eccentricity.

Screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski previously tackled two other infamous kooks: Ed Wood and Larry Flynt. But viewers of Ed Wood and The People Vs. Larry Flynt were better served. Attempts were made to examine their weird behavior and explain each man's truly odd outlook on life.

In Man on the Moon, we're inexplicably given only one brief childhood scene with the young Andy performing to the wall in his bedroom. No insight is provided, then or ever.

Much later, we discover Kaufman has a writing partner named Bob Zmuda (Paul Giamatti), but he pops in from nowhere and also is never explained. Zmuda co-produced Man on the Moon. Is he secretive or simply shy?

Although the screenplay lets Kaufman escape detection, Carrey, at least, does his job. The actor completely submerges his own vibrant personality and assumes all of Kaufman's public persona, including his parade of weird characters.

It's an astonishing performance -- Carrey seems to positively channel Kaufman.

I only wish the portrayal served a film that helped us understand how a guy could enjoy generating so much animosity and then plot to feed milk and cookies to an audience.

If Kaufman wanted it all to be a big mystery, he can rest easy. It still is.