Back in 1999, Jim Carrey starred in the movie “Man on the Moon”, in which he portrayed the oddball comic Andy Kaufman. Nearly 20 years later, footage from the set of that movie has now surfaced, revealing a pseudo-documentary going on behind the scenes. The hook? For long portions of the shooting (no matter if the cameras were rolling or silent), Carrey was in character as Kaufman.
What “Jim & Andy” does, then, is intersperse clips of the real-life Kaufman, the “Man on the Moon” film, the documentary crew following Carrey, and the modern-day, heavily bearded Carrey commenting on it all. What results is a wonderfully wacky and almost surreal look at a man so deep in his acting craft that the lines between acting and reality blur to the point of being nonexistent.
“When you compromise and fail, it hurts even more than failing at what you love. I learned that you can fail at what you don’t love, so you might as well do what you love. Really, there is no choice to be made – ” Jim Carrey
After watching “Jim & Andy”, there is no doubt that Carrey is one of the great comedic geniuses of all-time. His observations on comedy and life in general are very well thought-out and inspiring. Clearly (and by his own admission) he has come a long, long way and changed his thoughts on life quite heavily from when he was “on top of the world” in the mid-1990s. It was nice to see him able to reflect on his career like that.
What is Jim Carrey trying to tell us? – washingtonpost.com
So, any fans of Carrey, comedy, or insightful documentaries in general will enjoy this one. It perfectly balances the right tone between funny/screwball, while also informative/inspirational. You will fall in love with your life, with life, with Carrey and the creation of being all over again. It will make you laugh, it will make you cry, it will make you think – (credit: zkonedog)
10 Revelations from the Jim Carrey–Andy Kaufman Doc Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond – Vulture
Jim Carrey’s interesting ending monologue in the film:
Why am I an American? Why am I a Canadian? What is that? What does that mean? Somebody put a line down and said: “This is that”. You know..uh.. you know we are so much more. Then we, like, are born into a family, so we’re told what our family name is. And then your family choose a name, and they say: “Your name will be Joel. It means the awesomeness of Yahweh”. You know, and you have to live up to that, dude, and: “We are counting not to make us look bad. And you are gonna go to Harvard, and you are gonna be a doctor, you are gonna be… and by the way you are a Catholic, and you are a Jew, or you are, you know, whatever you are”. It’s like everything is so… there are these abstract structures that you are given, and it’s supposed to hold you together somehow, you know. And I just given them up, you know. I don’t need to be held together. I am fine just floating through space like Andy. You know, just flying 6000 miles an hour around the sun…
“Director Chris Smith made this doc. about identity and ultimately that’s the real lesson in the whole experience – adding that playing Kaufman allowed him to put aside his own issues, which he then had to face when the movie was finished – We spend our lives running around looking for anchors – the 55-year-old Canadian actor said, referring to how people cling to nationalities and other labels to define themselves.” – Reuters
TIFF Originals – This week on TIFF Long Take, Rob and Geoff lose their minds as they sit down with one of their childhood idols, Jim Carrey. The legendary comic is the subject of Chris Smith’s new documentary ‘Jim & Andy: the Great Beyond – the story of Jim Carrey & Andy Kaufman with a very special, contractually obligated mention of Tony Clifton’, an exploration into Carrey’s intense adoption of Kaufman’s persona during the making of the 1999 film ‘Man on the Moon’.