Film

Man on the Moon (1999)

Director: Milos Forman

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

In Britain, Andy Kaufman is best remembered as Latka in TV's Taxi. In the US, however, he won a controversial cult reputation as a genuinely bizarre stand-up/TV comedian. Carrey was the obvious choice to play a weirdo who never let his mask slip. As we're taken from Kaufman's early days playing a foreign simpleton and impersonating Elvis, to fame and infamy as a brazenly offensive wrestler of women, Carrey dons one persona after another while at the same time hinting that there may be a real Andy beneath the mimicry and mayhem. It's no more than a hint, however: at the close, one suspects that he remained as much an enigma for the film-makers as for us. That said, his plentifully recreated routines are mostly very funny, and the script wisely wrongfoots us as a regular ploy. Like Kaufman's manager (DeVito), his girl (Love), his partner in crime (Giamatti) and his public, we're constantly kept guessing as to what's real or false. Intriguing.

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