Hey folks, Harry here with the tall gaunt H Buckram Sartoris here to tell us all about his experience with MAN ON THE MOON, which he saw just recently in New York. And ya know... It sounds like it is as good as we were hoping for. If you ain't familiar with Sartoris... Check out his look at Scorsese's BRINGING OUT THE DEAD he contributed just recently!!!
Hey Harry,
H buckram here with a review of Man on the Moon.
This movie sucked!!
It was horribly written acted and directed. There is no reason anyone should see this.!!!!!
Ahhhhh, im just pulling an Andy on ya.
Where do I begin.
Tonite in NYC, I was fortunate to be able to attend a screening of what I think is going to be one of the best films of the year.This movie tells the story of the life of the extraordinary performer and icon Andy Kaufman(if you are not hip to this man, make it your business to be so now!!!!) The screening was attended by the director Milos Foreman, the writers Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski and the comedian Bob Zmuda. He was Andy's partner in crime and keeper of the flame. This was the first public screening and the film is still being worked on although it seems to be pretty much done. I will try to keep spoilers to a minimum as I think everyone should experience the magic of this film themselves.
I must start with the most obvious. JIM CARREY who plays Andy. Any actor will tell you how hard it is to portray a real life character. I can imagine it is even harder to portray someone who is still very fresh in people's minds. Jim Carrey, in the performance of his career so far, WAS Andy Kaufman. From the opening shot of the movie, which I will get to later, it is shocking how incredible his performance is. I am still trying to get over the morons at the academy who slept on this man for The Truman Show. If they ignore his performence here, they are truly mad! Carrey, apart from scarily looking exactly like Andy, manages to show every side of this man and yet still keep the mystery that I believe even his closest friends never unraveled. The portrayal of Latka Graves, the character Andy played on the tv show Taxi and Tony Clifton, the angry vegas lounge singer are so right on the money. How did he do it is what I am still trying to figure out. He keeps you in a trance from beginning to end. I will not soon forget this performance.
The other actors were fine as well. Danny Devito plays George Shapiro, Andy's manager. He does a great job portraying what wonderful insanity it must have been like to be close to Andy. Even better is Paul Giamatti who plays Bob Zmuda. Giamatti is a great character actor and as a side note also is the son of the legendary baseball commissoner, Yale president, and Pete Rose's favorite guy A Bartlett Giamatti. The only one who was not so great in the film was Courtney Love who plays Andy's girlfriend. It is not that she is horrible, she just does not rise to the level of actors around her.
The direction was wonderful. The film was stylish, clever and witty, which was very difficult in that I was so enraptured by Carrey's performance it would have been easy to overlook everything else. The opening scene is so brilliant and so ANDY. I don't want to give away what happens but it sets the mood for the people who know about this artist and for those who have no idea. Cleverly, it tells you exactly the type of man and performer that he was. There is another standout scene in the period of Andy's life when he was wrestling women. You see Andy in the ring as he is facing the women and wrestling them. The camera pans back and forth and as it does the faces of the women change repeatedly illustrating the extent to which Andy took this stunt as well as the monotony of what it became. The highlights from his career are all there as well as many secrets which Zmuda finally allowed to be known. Foreman also manages to get many of the actual people from Andy's life playing themselves. What differs from other films is that, he seemlessly incorporates them into the film without ever giving away the fact that these people are 10-20 years older than when these events took place. There is almost the entire actual cast from Taxi(except for Tony Danza and the aforementioned Danny Devito). Lorne Michaels of SNl plays himself. The wrestler Jerry "The King" Lawler and David Letterman are there as well. Oh, I have to say though, someone should have made Letterman wear a wig. He looks nothing like he did back then and it is an odd standout.There are a host of others. One beautiful moment comes at the end, during Andy's funeral. As Foreman cuts back and forth to some of the actors playing themselves, you realize the extent to which this person affected those around him. Carol Kane, who played Latka's wife on Taxi is crying hysterically while Marilu Henner, also on Taxi looks stunned, tragiclly feeling the major loss this was. You know this is not acting but real emotions being felt by real people.
What more can I say. I will be feeling the experience of this movie for a while to come. This is truly a film about a person who is very much deserving his story to be told. For me, it is the film to beat this year. A magical experience!
P.S. I got to speak to the writers, the director and Bob Zmuda after the film. According to Zmuda, there will be a releasing of tons of never before seen Kaufman footage including his never shown ABC special. As well, look out for Pittsburgh(formerly Ballbusted), which is the directorial debut of the writers Alexander and Karaszewski. It is a hilarious script and they told me they think it came out great.
