By Darren Johnson
Campus News
About eight years ago I started this column where I’d review Netflix movies, finding hidden gems you hadn’t seen before, and called it “It’s New to You!” Meaning, if the movie flew under the radar – perhaps it came out when you were too young to see it – but it’s otherwise good, watching it now will seem “new.”
Netflix even had a category for a while called “Hidden Gems” that I know they must have gotten from reading one of my columns. “It’s New to You!” was the first of its kind in a print publication, as far as I could tell, but since then such reviews are common everywhere.
So I’m going to finally change things around. Not only will I review a hidden-gem movie easily findable on a streaming service but also another movie that will help give that movie context. Maybe I will throw in a book, too. I’m thinking of calling the new column “Watch this – AND this!”
What am I talking about?
OK, let’s start with 1999’s “The Man on the Moon.” You may not have seen this, as the typical reader of Campus News was either just a little kid at that time or a zygote. Or perhaps you didn’t see it because it didn’t do much box office and was a financial disappointment. It only is 63% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes (but I rank it as one of my favorite films), so it isn’t run incessantly on cable, like “The Hangover” or “Bridesmaids.”
Let’s investigate why this movie is “new to you.” First, the director – Milos Forman is much better known for more serious, award-winning movies like “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Amadeus.” He apparently had a miserable time making “Man on the Moon” and doesn’t promote it amongst his signature works. So there’s that.
Then there’s star Jim Carrey. He had had a string of mega-movies such as “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective” and “The Mask” and this one bombed. “Man on the Moon” cost $82M to make but only grossed $43M. He went into a career funk after this movie that lasted a decade, so no wonder he doesn’t want to revisit it.
And then there is the subject matter. The movie is based on the life of short-lived 1970s and early 1980s comedian Andy Kaufman, whose quirky humor resulted in him getting the beloved role of immigrant Latka Gravas on the hit show “Taxi” but also found him doing anti-comedy, purposely angering audiences and taking joy from that. For example, he went on a circuit and wrestled women, playing the role of a male chauvinist and taunting women in the audience in a derogatory tone. He’d also dress up as broken-down lounge singer Tony Clifton and vulgarly insult unsuspecting diners in the audience who simply had gone out hoping for a good time. Most audiences didn’t get the humor, and he was voted off of “Saturday Night Live” by viewers sick of his shenanigans in 1982. So, just like then, a lot of modern viewers won’t like Carrey’s Kaufman and thus not like the movie.
But the movie has genius casting – Carrey is possessed by the ghost of Kaufman – he says this in a documentary currently on Netflix called “Jim and Andy: The Great Beyond” – and plays him perfectly. Courtney Love, of all people, is cast as his love interest, and is convincing. Hollywood’s best character actor, Paul Giamatti, plays Andy’s envelope-pushing protégé Bob Zmuda. Danny DeVito – who also starred in “Taxi” and “Cuckoo’s Nest” – plays Andy’s agent.
But the movie also recasts the whole cast of “Taxi” to perform with Carrey in lieu of Kaufman and “Late Night With David Letterman,” where Kaufman was famously sucker-punched by wrestler Bobby Lawler (also cast here). The soundtrack is performed by REM. This is a first-class movie.
So, find “Man on the Moon.” You can pay a few bucks to a streaming service like Amazon Instant or iTunes or it’s on HBO on Demand still. And then watch the documentary “Jim and Andy” on Netflix.
That 2017 documentary’s footage – kept in a vault for nearly two decades – shows us what happened behind the scenes of that movie. How Carrey wouldn’t leave character and kept annoying Forman and egging on Lawler. How Kaufman’s surviving family – including a daughter he had never met – were so convinced that Carrey was channeling Kaufman that they broke down around the actor. Carrey is also quite philosophical, as well, about life and death, fame and fortune. He has a unique take on life worth hearing.
If you really want to know who Kaufman was, watch old clips of his on YouTube. And also try the 1999 book “Lost in the Funhouse: The Life and Mind of Andy Kaufman” by New York Times award-winning journalist Bill Zehme. The book was written before the movie, but corroborates a lot of the details expressed in the movie.
So, there you go. Watch “Man on the Moon” and then watch “Jim and Andy” and then, if still interested, try the above book. You can order it through your town or college library or find it on eBay for a few bucks.
Find more streaming reviews on Nu2U.info!
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