Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond is a 2017 documentary directed by Chris Smith (Fyre) which tells the story of Jim Carrey portraying Andy Kaufman in the 1999 biopic Man on the Moon using 20 year old never-before-seen footage that Universal Studios forbid to be shown to the public so Jim didn’t look like an asshole. What makes the story so interesting is that Jim wasn’t actually on set… It was either Andy Kaufman, Tony Clifton, or Foreign Man. This was easy for our leading man but not the director or other cast/crew members. 

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A method actor is defined as an actor who aspires to complete emotional identification with a part. Jim took this definition to a whole new level. He didn’t do what Cristian Bale does which is either gain or lose weight or what Jared Leto does which is send bullets and other inappropriate items to his co-stars. Jim embodied three identities during the entire shoot of a movie. Least to say, it was a living hell for the majority of the cast and crew. 

 

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What intrigued me (and what made me like this documentary) so much was the present interview with Jim reflecting on what he did on set, why he did it, and what he would’ve done differently. His basic answers were: He acted crazy on set to embody Andy’s public persona as the man who wrestled women & the funny guy who didn’t care, he did all of it so he could be authentic to the real man Andy was and how his alter ego (Tony) would respond to the chaos on set, and what he would change is be less of a jerk to professional wrestler Jerry Lawler who punched him on set. The documentary was well edited, blending A-Roll & B-Roll perfectly without it making you lose track of the central idea. Chris Smith decided to not focus on anyone else besides Jim… So bland shots that were color-corrected perfectly were mostly used for the interviews he conducted. 

 

What I didn’t like is how there were some moments in the middle of the movie (mostly with Tony Clifton) that got kind of annoying after awhile. I understand why they added that footage but it just got repetitive after awhile. The 1 hour 34 minute film could’ve easily been about an hour and 10 minutes. 

 

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It was all unfiltered behind the scenes footage so no acting was on screen, there wasn’t much of a score that could be heard (it was mostly songs from artists like David Bowie, R.E.M., Tony Clifton, etc), not many shots were memorable, BUT there was impressive lighting, editing, and color correction used in the final product. 

 

I like to review regular films and don’t watch as many documentaries as my parents do but after watching this I found that there could be something interesting to find out of a genre not many people pay attention to. 

 

Would I recommend this movie? Depends on what you’re interested in really. If you like to analyze films, like Jim Carrey, or like Man on the Moon then you might get a kick out of this. If you don’t like documentaries or find what goes into making a movie boring… Then you may find this bad. To see how far an actor would go to portray a famous icon is a crazy sight to see. Some of his on set antics include: Ticking pro-wrestler Jerry Lawler off, arguing with Academy Award winning director Milos Forman, barging into Steven Spielberg’s offices demanding to see him and criticize Jaws, making Dany DeVito question why he’s doing the movie, going to the playboy mansion as Tony Clifton and then getting kicked out for making the fellow guests uncomfortable, and finally yelling at an actor portraying Andy’s father which then made a makeup artist cry. 

 

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Jim discusses how this film changed him as a person. He sees the world as nothing but a lame amusement park with fake smiles everywhere. After playing Andy he found it hard to go back to the person he was before… Which goes to show how six months in front of a camera pretending to be someone you’re not can really change you. 

 

Jim found out he got the part of Andy looking out at the ocean on a beach in Malibu, this would either be his rise to being taken as a serious actor… Or his downfall and find what it truly means to be yourself.

 

“I learned that you can fail at what you don't love, so you might as well do what you love.”

-Jim Carrey.