Memoirs and Misinformation: A Novel

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Look, I’ve loved Jim Carrey since his first Ace Ventura movie. Shortly after this movie, or maybe the second, I happened upon a family drama he had made previously, where he played an alcoholic son. I distinctly remember a scene with him crying on the stairs, and remember marvelling at his drama performance, and have since then sought out the dramas he has done, and they’re definitely my favorite of his films. Granted, he is funny, but he is also tragic, and is great at portraying these dual personalities. Me, Myself and Irene, is a deeply serious film about mental illness, and while the people at the cinema I was in were laughing, I was wondering why they couldn’t see that he was portraying a character who was deeply troubled. It’s practically a Hot Take to announce that we don’t entirely hate this disposable, endearingly goofy and stupid magician comedy. Carrey plays Steve Gary, who’s like Criss Angel if Criss Angel had his frontal lobe removed. It’s a hammy, silly performance that leans into these showmen’s razzle-dazzle, I-am-the-messiah bluster, but since Carrey is just a supporting player, he doesn’t overstay his welcome too badly. And, c’mon, how many movies feature him drilling a hole into his head? The Ace Ventura movies (1994, 1995) Part autobiography, part fiction, Carrey and Vachon draw disparate parts of experience together to pull off an unconventional memoir/farewell letter to civilization as they know it.

Dave Holstein, creator of the Showtime series “Kidding,” starring Carrey as a children’s television personality coping with tragedy, believes his star has reached a tenuous peace with a life of “peaks and valleys we can only begin to understand.” Jeff Daniels narrating was the only reason I pushed through and finished it. But even Hungry Hungry Hippos the movie couldn't save this one for me, unfortunately. A book begging to be read on the beach, with the sun warming the sand and salt in the air: pure escapism. In an interview with New York Times reviewer, Dave Itzkoff, Jim Carrey explained his latest book, “Memoirs and Misinformation,” co-written by author of Wall Street satire "Mergers & Acquisitions," Dana Vachon. “It’s the end of the world, and we have the perfect book for it.”A mad fever dream. . .Carrey and his collaborator Vachon pull out all the stops as their protagonist Jim Carrey careens from midlife blues through love and career complications toward the apocalypse . . . gems of comic fantasy and the nuggets of memoir gold.” Carrey and Vachon pepper “Memoirs and Misinformation” with a plethora of celebrity cameos and name-dropping. These portrayals are almost certainly fictional although either based on fact or are Carrey’s perceptions of the said individuals. This offers readers some ‘food for thought’. Jim Carrey’s ability to project an air of insincerity was put to good use in this so-so dark comedy based on the life of Steven Jay Russell, a con artist who found love with fellow inmate Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor). What Carrey does well in I Love You is make you believe Steven, even when your instincts tell you not to trust him. It’s a neat twist on the comic’s persona, which has always been built around getting you to like his characters, even when there seems to be something … off about them. I Love You is a little too cutesy, a little too pleased with its too-good-to-be-true story, but Carrey’s willingness to dig into this profoundly fake man has its rewards. Mr. Popper’s Penguins (2011)

We get it Jim... there is no Jim. Now do you want us to take you seriously or are you just screwing around in Hollywood and New York with way too much free time and money?A meandering and sometimes pointless story that tries to be odd for odds' sake, but makes you wonder, more than once, if this book would be published if it weren't for the fact that Jim Carrey wrote it. This book has no point... and more importantly it has no purpose other than to indirectly illuminate why actors don't typically write the stories they star in. I can't help but feel like this is a Kaufman-esque joke about the results of binge watching a bunch of crappy late night History Channel shows about ancient civilizations and aliens. Browning, Justine (October 2, 2019). "Jim Carrey to Publish First Novel Memoirs and Misinformation". Entertainment Weekly . Retrieved September 12, 2020. I know it's become a popular trope to claim that comedians are often the darkest people, but I have little sympathy/empathy for a guy waddling in his own self pity from a cozy 10 million dollar Malibu Beach house.

Perez, Lexy (April 6, 2020). "Jim Carrey's Book Memoirs and Misinformation Pushed to July Release". Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved September 12, 2020. This notorious disaster (from his Batman Forever director Joel Schumacher) about a man obsessed with a book full of conspiracies about the number 23 is lurid, overcooked, and completely ridiculous, and not even in a fun way. Carrey has proven himself more than capable of taking on dramatic roles, but he’s all wrong for this; he just seems awkward and lost. The Number 23 also made you, well, worry about Carrey; sure, he was playing an unbalanced character, but signing on to do so made you wonder about his decision-making process at this particular point of his life. No more movies where there are scribbles all over your face on the poster, Jim. Dark Crimes (2017) Midway through our FaceTime conversation, Carrey says he wants to show me something. Scrolling through his phone, he lands on a drawing he’s making of his father, Percy, wearing a navy suit, the only suit he ever owned. It’s a work in progress, illustrating a scene from the book in which Percy holds his son’s wounded hands (which “Carrey” had gnawed away in a fever dream, thinking they were Slim Jims) and reveals nothing less than the meaning of existence.The famous characters portrayed here seem to be mostly wild, outlandish versions of themselves. True, you could say it’s art imitating life, but this is art on methamphetamines. At the beginning of the novel, I was thinking this might be Hunter S. Thompson-esque, but I was mistaken. Kelsey Grammer is written as Frasier. To me, that just doesn’t work. It's weird, it's dark, it's satire, it's biography ... there's aliens and celebrity bashing and even some hippos. And I still have no idea what I just read. Franich, Darren (July 7, 2020). "Jim Carrey Talks Memoirs and Misinformation, His Novel About Jim Carrey". Entertainment Weekly. Yahoo! Entertainment . Retrieved September 12, 2020.

Not a typical tell-all. . . . blends moving autobiography, name-droppish tabloid fodder, science-fiction, and anti-capitalist screed.”A man's (Jim Carrey) discovery of an obscure book about the number 23 leads him on a descent into darkness. As he becomes more obsessed with its contents, he becomes more convinced that it is, in fact, based on his life. To his horror, he discovers grave consequences in store for the book's main character. That reality, as you might expect from Carrey’s career of infiltrating fiends, clowns and sad men trying to stave off loneliness, naturally tilts toward the surreal — a tone consistent with the experience of speaking with Carrey himself. For instance, when the conversation turns to Las Vegas, a place the book’s “Jim Carrey” fears he’ll wind up “when he’s old, jowly with bleached teeth and hair plugs, whoring for the bingo crowds,” Carrey describes his own visits to Sin City in feverish prose that surpasses the book. An engaging, fun tale that plays with the public perceptions of celebrities, questions our compulsive need to view, and contains a gloriously off-the-wall conclusion.” Just because it's Jim Carey doesn't mean we should 5/5 star anything he writes. Yes he's one of my favorite actors of all time and I find him absolutely hilarious. BUT is he a writer? no... It was a random jumble of scenes and events, without a real story or theme.. was this just to see how many people bought a book simple because you wrote it?