Its good. Honest.

"Man on the Moon," the biopic about Andy Kauffman, is one of the better movies I've in the past 5 months. Its enjoyable, its funny, it captures the feeling of its subject, and it ends right when its appropriate. At no point in the movie does it break suspension of disbelief. Jim Carrey is funny, weird, and conveys any conflicting emotions with subtlety and tact.

Going in to this film, I expected a boring movie where Jim Carrey is obviously Jim Carrey the entire movie, where Andy Kauffman's conflict with studios or his weird sense of humor is placed at the forefront, and I could spend this entire review talking about the incredibly cute girl I have a crush on. How gleefully disappointed was I, and I sure hope that's the only thing I'll be disappointed on. I'll let you guys know if I get a girlfriend now. We're all basically best friends. We can share. Everything.

Especially clothes.

This is a good review to introduce you guys to a format that I will be using forever more, after I realized during "Alien Origin" that if I just spend my time rambling about the movie I just watched, it'll be an unclear mess, and each click on the hubwheel would be one more crack in my faith in humanity. So I'm going to ask a series of questions. Its most likely five but it could also be six. But it'll be at least five. Anywhere between 5 and 100. Most definetly not 101. And not 4 either. Here's the first of the 5 or anywhere above that but below 101.

How's the acting?

Its great-ish! There are clearly actors and actresses who are not the greatest in the world, but their characters are minor and are mostly relegated to Andy's family members. The lines are delivered well, the dialogue feels natural, and you can't even tell that Danny DeVito is in this movie until he sits on a chair.

Jim Carrey is great, and his performance is exactly what it needed to be. His acting does not overshadow his character; Andy Kauffman is on the stage, and for some reason he has Jim Carrey's face. At no point past the opening credits do you see Jim Carrey playing Andy Kauffman, its always just Andy Kauffman.

There's no Jim Carrey signature funny bits, there's no incredibly funny faces or odd voices aside from the parts that need it. Thank god. I loathe that line every time I see it in a review: "[Actor/Actress] brings their signature [Expression/Line/Sex Scene/Whatever] to the screen" is essentially looking at the audience and telling them that Ryan Reynolds can't embody his character, he can only ever present them in a terrible Green Lantern movie.

Acting is ultimately about that, the embodiment of a character, and while for minor parts the portrayal of a character is fine, the lead really needs to become that person. Jim Carrey does that, and does it well the entire film, especially when he dies of cancer. Spoilers!

Is it well shot?

Its okay. None of the shots are particularly striking, and the movie is narrative driven rather than visually driven. The camera work is competent, but not revolutionary or all that notable.

I'm pretty sure the camera is focused on Jim Carrey's almost unibrow a lot though. Anyway, I'm trying to ask this girl out, but she's really gorgeous and I'm a bit nervous. She comes in to the store from time to time and she seems to be that out-of-place person that I can't help but find myself attracted to. Maybe its because I've always thought that I float on the outside of social groups, that I can be in no one unit, and when I bump in to another person I feel shares that quality, I can't help but be attracted to them beyond what is just physical. I know her reputation, but maybe its that that drives me in that direction as well? I don't know. Do you think a person can find personal and spiritual redemption through bettering someone else's life, even if the motivation is ultimately a selfish attempt to better themselves in the process? Is that even selfish is the end result is mutually beneficial?

Is the story good?

The story follows the life of Andy Kauffman, in a way that feels like its about Andy Kauffman first and his comedy second. You get to see him upset when people demand he "do Latka" at a comedy show, happy when he spends countless wrestling matches getting the entire nation riled up over what is ultimately a prank, everything. Its a fantastic look at someone from their own point of view.

I don't care what the audience thought of Andy Kauffman, and I don't care about his conflict with the studios. Those stories aren't interesting. What is interesting is the tragedy of a character torn between his sense of art and his need to perform. The world around the character is secondary to their conflict with themselves; when it comes to artists especially, that's the interesting part and the rest is mundane.

What's the best scene?

The opening. The rest of the movie is great, but if you watch it without the opening it'd be much worse.

Man on the Moon opens with Jim Carrey at a record player, in a black-white filter. He tells the audience that its the end of the film - which it clearly isn't - and starts the credits. This goes on and on, for several minutes. The entire opening takes much longer than you'd think, to the point where you almost question if that's the entire film, and you'll just be pranked by Jim Carrey in a suitcoat for the entirety of two hours.

It sets the stage for the type of humor presented throughout the rest of the film, and its funny. A lot of this film is actually funny, despite what people on Netflix think. They got "disturbed" from the performance, but I got brilliant. Not like I acquired it I mean. Okay, you know what I meant. I meant like got as in got. Like got it. Not acquired. There, that cleared up all the confusion.

What about nudity?

There's like one scene with prostitutes and you can see a nipple, and there's a panty shot at one point. You never get to see Jim Carrey's penis.

What's the worst part of the movie?

The ending scene. No, I'm not saying I didn't want this movie to end, I'm saying the ending scene was bad.

So Andy Kauffman dies of cancer, and it has the "One Year Later" card. Got it, its one year later. I wonder if you'll see what people have been up to! Cool, oh wait, its Tony Clifton singing. Andy Kauffman's face is in neon lights. I guess its showing that he might not really be dead? Or he totally is dead and this is just an impersonator. Or something. Or he faked his own death.

I guess that fits with the theme, but I'm pretty sure he actually died of lung cancer. Cancer is sort of a bitch that way, and it tends to kill you pretty dead. I mean, the ending isn't terrible, its just that Kauffman is dead and leaving the ending opening is just going to have people wondering for 5 minutes before they look it up, and remember that Kauffman is dead.

Overall, the film is great, and I highly recommend it. Now to see what's coming up the rest of this week!

Done Alien Origin Don't watch unless you feel like death's welcome embrace! Man on the Moon Watch it, its pretty great!

Not Done Barbarella, Queen of the Space Galaxy Hanoi Jane, what are you doing in space? LOL I can't get over how dumb this looks.

FAN REQUEST FRIDAY

Since everyone insists that I review a metric butt-ton of movies, I've decided to make every friday a Fan Request day. So take your pick! If you want to see me write what I think about a movie I saw after reading your recommendations, then write a post for me to see! I'm not going off most hubwheeled, so comment away; the film with the most comments gets selected. Yes, you can only pick one. I'm doing these reviews for a while, so if your film doesn't make it this week, it'll probably do it eventually.

I'm not reviewing the Star Wars Prequels. Ever.

Why was this up so late?

I have a job.