Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond (2017)

I was wandering through the documentary section on Netflix when I stumbled upon Chris Smith's Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond. I couldn't believe there was a documentary about Jim Carrey so, of course, I ended up watching it. 

The film is about the making of Milos Forman's Man on the Moon, the biopic of comedian Andy Kaufman, and focuses on how Jim Carrey prepared, actually, how he essentially became Andy Kaufman for the role in the film. 

I've never been much of a fan of Jim Carrey. Sure, I enjoyed some of his movies, even the dumb ones, but I always thought of him as a show-off, one of those people who use their art to scream at the top of their lungs, "please, look at me", and never took him seriously as an actor because of this, reason why his performance in Charlie Kaufman's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind blew my mind. 

This documentary provides a quite interesting look at the kind of actor Jim Carrey really is, especially when facing the challenge of playing more complex roles than he usually plays. His approach to the role for Man on the Moon was a beyond extreme method acting as not only Carrey completely immersed himself in Andy Kaufman's persona while on set, but he would act like Kaufman throughout the entire production. He would never break out of character, not even, especially, when Andy's family and friends were around. He was a nightmare to work with and many times I felt sorry for the crew and his costars for having to put up with his obnoxiousness. 

Netflix

While Jim becoming Andy is the main focus of the documentary, Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond also explored Carrey's career from a very early stage up to present day and shows the influence his father had on him as well as Kaufman's. And Carrey comes off as someone who isn't completely right in the head. 

Ultimately, the film does a good job at analysing Jim Carrey and overall it's quite compelling. There are some boring bits here and there though, which prevent the film from being fully enjoyable.