'Man on the Moon', it occurred to me, is a film that's almost identical to Forman's last film, 'The People Vs. Larry Flynt'. It starts out with our hero, young and forming their claim to fame in an abstract way. It then shifts, very rapidly, to our hero failing in the line of work they'll later become famous and successful in. Finally, it becomes an "ESPN highlights" special of their lives, the key word being : episodic. 'Man on the Moon', like 'The People Vs. Larry Flynt', chooses to champion someone more current than historical, more troublesome to the populous than beloved (and in each case, it's a clear, one-sided argument that the hero is a genius) and truly more misunderstood than any of us can possibly imagine. They seem to be films that, and now I'm pointing at the screenwriters (Alexander and Karaszewski, also of 'Ed Wood' and 'Screwed' fame), want desperately to be the definitive final word on their subjects with no room left for argument. They want to create Gods in the face of men and beg us to worship them with our moviegoing bucks. And that all sounds pretty manipulative, except that both films are decidedly comedies - and this one in particular, is a laugh riot. It's no 'Best Film of the Year', as Owen Gleiberman of EW would have you believe : it's Carrey. That's what I'll have you believe. He's a wonderful actor. Born out of Canadian poverty into Hollywood slapstick, and now, smacking around in the almighty American film consciousness with two amazing performances ('The Truman Show' and this). In 'Man on the Moon', he plays the notorious Andy Kaufman as an exciting clown; a man who was so easy to love - but thrived on the challenge of making you hate him. A man who was an astounding pretender, did miraculous impressions and loved the serenity of meditation and the laughter of children. (sarcasm) Really - how did this guy get misunderstood? Sure, the film is trying hard to harpoon us into believing that his life was cut-and-dry enough to make a "regular" movie out of. We know better. Watching for two hours, 'Man on the Moon' seems like a collection of great gags that could play on any evening television magazine show - with the same bittersweet ending. While I thought it was "just another comedy" in the theater, on video (and more importantly - DVD - hilarious deleted scenes, by the way) 'Man on the Moon' plays like on of Andy's stunts : it's bewilderingly hilarious, whole-heartedly in good fun and then it ends.