Man on the Moon

Year of Release:  1999
Director:  Milos Forman
Screenplay:  Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski
Starring:  Jim Carrey, Danny DeVito, Courtney Love, Paul Giamatti
Running Time:  119 minutes
Genre:  Biography, comedy, drama

This film tells the story of American entertainer Andy Kaufman (Carrey).  His bizarre performances fail at nightclubs, where the audiences want traditional comedy, but intrigue Hollywood agent George Shapiro (DeVito).  Despite his disdain for sitcoms, Kaufman rises to fame as Latka in the popular comedy show Taxi (1978-1983), which leads to appearances on Saturday Night Live, Late Night with David Letterman and others.  However Kaufman's live set, which is more performance art than comedy, as well as his taste for bizarre elaborate practical jokes and pranks, including appearances as his alter ego, the obnoxiously rude and untalented lounge singer Tony Clifton, and wrestling women in the guise of a professional wrestling villain, offend and alienate his audience and co-workers.

Outside of the sitcom Taxi Andy Kaufman never achieved mainstream acceptance, but he became kind of a cult figure, inspiring the REM song from which this film takes it's title.  He is portrayed here as a talented, if unconventional performer, who there was never really a niche for, and probably still isn't.  Carrey turns in a superb performance as Kaufman, and has great support form Danny DeVito as his loyal but frustrated manager (DeVito starred alongside the real Kaufman in Taxi), ass well as Courtney Love who is underused as Kaufman's long-suffering partner Lynne Margulies, and Paul Giamatti plays Kaufman's sidekick Bob Zmuda.  The cast from Taxi also make cameo appearances as themselves.  The film is stylishly made, starting with Carrey as Kaufman interrupting the film's opening credits to tell the audience the film is already over and they should go home.  It never really gets under the skin of Kaufman and, if you want to find out what made the man tick you won't learn it here.  In fact after the film, it's unclear how much of Kaufman was real and how much was just an elaborate put on.  Which probably would have pleased him no end.
A documentary about the film's deeply strange production was released on Netflix in 2017 called Jim & Andy:  The Great Beyond.        

Jim Carrey in Man on the Moon

The Truman Show

Year of Release:  1998
Director:  Peter Weir
Screenplay:  Andrew Niccol
Starring:  Jim Carrey, Laura Linney, Noah Emmerich, Natascha McElhone, Holland Taylor, Ed Harris
Running Time:  103 minutes
Genre:  Science-fiction, comedy, drama

Truman Burbank (Carrey) lives a contended life with his wife Meryl (Linney), in a seemingly idyllic coastal town of Seahaven Island.  However Truman begins to suspect that something is very strange.  A spotlight falls from the sky, almost hitting him.  A homeless man bears a striking resemblance to his father who died 22 years earlier, and is quickly hustled away by seemingly random passers-by.  His car radio picks up a strange transmission that seems to describe his exact movements, and rain falls only on him.  Added to that the odd behaviour of his family, friends and neighbours.  In reality, Truman Burbank is the unwitting star of the world's top-rated television show.  Since birth he has lived his life in a vast set, and everyone he encounters is an actor playing a role.  Every minute of Truman's life is orchestrated by the show's creator and executive producer Christof (Harris) and broadcast live around the world twenty-four hours a day.

This is an enjoyable and intriguing film, which is surprisingly prophetic, foreseeing the explosion in so-called "reality" television.  While the film isn't very funny, it is enjoyable and very clever, managing to marry entertainment and big ideas.  The film is very stylish, imagining the look of Truman's world as a bright, all-American "white picket fence" small town, with Christof's control room hidden in the Moon.  Jim Carrey gives a charismatic performance in what was really his first major dramatic role, Laura Linney plays the actor playing the part of Meryl, hiding her true feelings behind a huge fake smile, and cheery demeanor which occasionally slips, also of note is Ed Harris who seems to be channeling Steve Jobs as the sinister Christof.  While the story mostly takes place in Truman's world, as he slowly begins to understand the nature of his reality, it is interspersed with sequences in the show's control room, and the reactions of the viewing public.  The film tackles some big themes such as the nature of reality, identity and media manipulation.

Jim Carrey in The Truman Show 
 

The Cable Guy

Year of Release:  1996
Director:  Ben Stiller
Screenplay:  Lou Holtz, Jr.
Starring:  Jim Carrey, Matthew Broderick, Leslie Mann,
Running Time:  95 minutes
Genre:  comedy, thriller

Steve Kovacs (Broderick) has been kicked out by his girlfriend, Robyn (Mann), and moves into an apartment.  When he gets his cable installed, the cable guy, Chip Douglas (Carrey), turns out to be deeply strange, eccentric and overly friendly.  When Steve, out of a sense of obligation and guilt, agrees to hang out with Chip, he finds him creepy and aggressive.  Steve decides to break off the "friendship", but Chip will not take no for an answer.

When this film was released, back in 1996, Jim Carrey was probably the biggest comedy star around, coming off the back of massive hits like Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1993), The Mask (1994) and Dumb and Dumber (1995) which were all based on his brand of cartoonish, rubber-faced physical comedy.  While in previous films, Carrey's persona was often abrasive, aggressive, and irritating, he was always essentially the hero, here he is definitely a villain.  His manic persona feels at odd with the essentially naturalistic world around him here, particularly the quiet performance of Matthew Broderick, there is a sense of real danger from Chip, he feels like an alien with only a vague idea of how to act as human.  The film was released to largely negative reviews and was widely regarded as a failure, although it has becomes something of a cult film now.  While the film is funny and does have an edge to it, it's not edgy enough to be truly dark.  There are a couple of future stars appearing in small roles, such as Jack Black and Owen Wilson, and director Ben Stiller appears as a suspected murderer on a high profile trial which is seen on news bulletins throughout the film.

Jim Carrey is The Cable Guy