Andy Kaufman Is Me Review (Tribeca Film Festival 2025)
/By Justin D Williams
The documentary film "Andy Kaufman Is Me", directed by Clay Tweel, presents a creative portrait of one of comedy's greatest and most mysterious figures. The film has hours of unseen audio recordings, interviews with friends and family, and even creative puppetry, the film presents viewers with an intimate and quirky portrait of the mind and heart of Andy Kaufman. It is not merely a documentary, but a journey of discovery into performance, identity, and the quest to be seen.
The film immediately introduces itself by having Kaufman tell us himself about his life. More than 80 hours of Kaufman's own audio recordings are drawn upon throughout the film, in which we listen to him on the phone with his fans, doing comedy bits on the exercise floor, and even uttering his own fears and frustrations. These tapes succeed precisely because they do not merely introduce us to the artist famous for stunts and bewilderment—they introduce us to a person. Consider the moment, for instance, when Kaufman reassures a befuddled fan that his professional wrestling matches were an elaborate joke. We see in this moment the tenderness behind the deception. It is these vulnerable, exposed moments that invest the film with its emotional power.
The film also unapologetically makes an aesthetic statement by using puppetry to bring to life segments of Kaufman's as-yet-uncompleted novel "The Huey Williams Story". On first impression, this will sound insane, but it actually does work in Kaufman's anarchic and fantastical mode. Instead of just telling us about his creative process, the film tells us how he did it—converting his fiction into a visual language. These segments are quirky and bizarre, as Kaufman himself is, and serve to interrupt the more somber aspects of the documentary with that feeling of awe and inquiry.
They also include interviews with Kaufman's closest intimates. His brother Michael and sister Carol reflect on Andy's stage fright behind the scenes. Comedy legends Carol Kane and David Letterman recall him fondly, describing hours with him as mind-bending yet thrilling—to the circus. These descriptions aid in filling in the portrait of Kaufman as not only an artist, but as a brother, as a friend, as a human being trying to navigate a world that frequently demanded of him otherwise.
But the documentary is not perfect. Some of the critics have noted that while the movie says that Kaufman broke rules and did not want to be placed in a category, in the end, it attempts to box him too. This makes it paradoxical. Kaufman wanted to be understandable, but the documentary professes to want to provide him with some definitive meaning. While this doesn't ruin the film, it does feel like the filmmakers are trying to tie up loose ends for a story that wasn't ever meant to have loose ends tied up.
Briefly, "Andy Kaufman Is Me" is a rare and emotional film that gets us closer than ever to knowing a man who famously wouldn't let us. Through Kaufman's own audio recordings, imaginative animation, and affectionate interviews, the film presents both a tribute and an alternative theory. It won't fully crack the Andy Kaufman enigma—perhaps the film intends just that. He wasn't designed to be solved. He was designed to be felt.
Final Rating
