One of the most memorable highlights in “Thank you very much”, Alex Braverman’s consistently engaging documentary about Comedy legend Andy KaufmanDo not involve directly Kaufman at all.
Well, technically, it does – but in the circular, complicated way that only he could design. It is an audio recording by actor Judd Hirsch, who is so furious that he seems ready to explode. His complaint? That a two-bit, without talking buffet named Tony Clifton has taken over the set of its 1970s, “Taxi”, which participated in Kaufman. The fact that Hirsch knows that Clipon is one of Kaufman’s alter ego has not on the remote problem; He’s really mad at Klueöv – A guy who does not actually exist in any traditional sense.
If there is a moment that distills Kaufman’s unique genius, it is sure. In other hands, the whole situation would look like a dopey and unforgivable abandoned prank. But he is so fully committed that he demanded that everyone else around him be equally committed and thus viscerally affected.
Most of “Thank you so much” shows us different versions of Kaufman’s brilliant madness: trying to read the whole “The Great Gatsby” instead of making the standup routine expected an upset audience; shifts from the childish person of an Oprious foreign introvert to a carefully outstanding Elvis aftermath; Cutting a Carnegie Hall routine that is short to take everyone for milk and cookies at a personal cost for – he claimed – $ 40,000.
Long -term fans will already be aware of all the above and may even have seen part of it before. But Braverman’s attitude, where he mostly relies on Kaufman to tell his own story through extensive and skilfully edited vintage pictures, is the right one.
Other filmmakers may have taken more obvious, incorrect routes and tried to replicate their subject’s style or withdraw all kinds of random experts to explain it. Instead, the Braverman circle keeps close: Andy in the center, with interviews from family, friends and employees at the edges. So we hear from musicians Laurie Anderson, who served as a pre -planned Heckler during his early exhibitions. A typically thought -provoking Steve Martin seems to work out his feelings even today. And an animated Danny Devito goes through a very entertaining range of emotions about Kaufman’s discoveries on and outside the “taxi” set.
Braverman also talks to Kaufman’s collaborator Bob Zmuda and girlfriend Lynne Margulies, who share more personal memory about his inner life. And no, you will not come out of the movie with any evidence that his tragically early passing – in just 35 – was the ultimate conspiracy planned by an tireless performance artist.
However, you can find yourself questioning some unnecessary attempts at deep analysis. The fact that his parents lied to him about his grandfather’s death – claimed here as a single defining moment – is sad, but surely a Andy Kaufman was born, not made.
And who was he, really? Someone so complex that no documentary can completely answer that question. But by letting us hear directly from him in so many different ways, “thank you so much” as close as we probably come.
