“Andy wasn’t interested in being remembered as one thing,” Carol Kaufman says about her brother towards the end of “Andy Kaufman is Me,” a portrait of the comedian that seems to accept the fact that when so many tried to figure out who the “Taxi” star was when he was alive, the guessing game would keep going after his death, leading to multiple biographies that all confuse the issue further when they they’ve emerged from a variety of different perspectives. The most recent before “Andy Kaufman is Me,” Alex Braverman’s exuberant “Thank You Very Much” was largely drawn from the vantage point of Bob Zmuda, Kaufman’s most trusted professional partner-in-crime who would dress up as the belligerent lounge singer Tony Clifton on the nights when Kaufman wasn’t available, and his girlfriend Lynn Margulies, who was with him at the time of his death in 1984 when he passed away from cancer at just the age of 35, both of whom also were involved in “Man on the Moon,” the Milos Forman biopic starring Jim Carrey. Main characters in these other films, they barely receive a mention in “Gleason” director Clay Tweel’s no less engaging exploration of Kaufman’s genius, but instead of looking back from the perspective of the pop culture phenomenon that he became, “Andy Kaufman is Me” considers who he was with the people that he grew up around, namely his siblings Carol and Michael.
As far as resources go, it would be hard to top what “Andy Kaufman is Me” has at its disposal when not only Kaufman’s brother and sister can be seen unearthing from their family archives, such as footage of Andy first trying out his act at birthday parties for kids he was only slightly older than at the age of nine, but the film was also produced by David Letterman’s Worldwide Pants and the WWE, providing a look at the fabled feud that Kaufman started with King of the Ring Jerry Lawler that hasn’t been seen before. (A major highlight of the film becomes Letterman speaking about Kaufman and Lawler’s joint appearance on the show where the latter slapped the former, and Kaufman asked for all the mail that resulted and began to call each viewer that might’ve been upset one by one.) The access to materials that were once held close to the vest also gives the film an unusual throughline when Michael and Carol describe the events of a book that Kaufman would write off and on over the years called “The Huey Williams Story,” which was ultimately published in a limited run by Michael after his brother’s death, yet now fetches hundreds if not thousands of dollars for a copy, making this a far more accessible version — and in more ways than one when the family notes similarities between Kaufman’s childhood and the fictional protagonist of his novel.
It isn’t just Michael and Carol describing the story of Huey Williams, but at times Andy himself when he kept copious recordings and while the film doesn’t have as much of him relating his own story as it would seem to promise at the beginning when acknowledging this treasure trove of tapes, the ability to include his voice opens the door for Tweel to include others that might not have been available in another kind of treatment as the film comes to include audio interviews about pivotal points in his life with Kaufman’s father Stanley, Lorne Michaels and Dustin Hoffman, who was at one of Kaufman’s first stand-up sets. When Kaufman so often came across as larger than life, the more demure approach combined with mostly speaking to those with a direct personal connection rather than a professional one does speak to a different side of him, more sincere and less impulsive than he has looked before. (A requisite scene of modern-day subversive satirists such as Eric Andre and Gregg Turkington praising him also shows an unusual understanding of him when dropped into the mix like a wild left-field turn with more and more ridiculous titles for the interviewees.)
Strangely, as much as a reflection as “Andy Kaufman is Me” is of the rights involved in bringing a life story to the screen these days when various stakeholders come together or don’t, it would also appear to honor Kaufman’s wishes that so many different versions of him are out there with the truth likely somewhere in the middle. However, if there is anything concrete that should be drawn from this latest iteration, it’s that Kaufman’s act has never gotten old or that there could be too much of it and with so much rare material playful pieced together to honor his ingenuity, “Andy Kaufman is Me” is as good a place as any to start to find out what made him tick.
“Andy Kaufman is Me” will next screen at DC/Dox on June 14th at Regal Gallery Place at 8:15 pm.