Questions about Andy that have stuck in my mind for years are not necessarily answered by this film, but they are acknowledged, and that acknowledgement makes me feel better overall.

Rating: 9/10 (16 December 1999)

I was only 6 years old when Andy Kaufman started working on "Taxi" and believe it or not, I remember. Who wouldn't? Latka Gravas was an adorable character, and despite his being a network redefinition of Andy's original Foreign Man (from his stand up routine), I still believe that the tenderness was true facet of Andy's complicated heart.
Those expecting a standard lifeline biopic will perhaps be disappointed. A look at the teenage Andy in high school is not to be found here. No first dates here. We go from a very young Andy singing animal songs with his baby sister, directly to his singing those same animal songs with a drunken and unamused audience in an anonymous comedy club. But the film suffers nothing from this leap in time, because this is a look at the private Andy behind the public Andy we all watched develop on television.
To say the representations of the people in Andy's life are accurately portrayed is an understatement, because the people he knew and worked with are (with notable expections) all here. The cast of Taxi, Lorne Michaels, Jerry Lawler, David Letterman and others all play themselves, and you sense that they are all doing this out of their love for Andy.
My feelings about this film are time-released, like the old Contac commercials used to claim. I saw it yesterday afternoon, and today I find myself pondering points and sorting emotions.
Questions about Andy that have stuck in my mind for years are not necessarily answered by this film, but they are acknowledged, and that acknowledgement makes me feel better overall. It is hard to explain, and especially difficult because I have no desire to reveal any of this films secrets and surprises prematurely.
The film is wonderful. I have been asked by friends if it is sad. Yes, very much so. And it is very funny. There was a gleeful darkness to Andy's art that did not make him an easy person to appreciate, but there is a poignancy to his story that offsets that darkness. And somehow this film has managed to give its audience a look at the center of that balance of light and dark, of sadness and joy.