In Introspective Doc, Marc Maron Faces Grief

Toward the finish of his 2023 HBO comedy one-of-a-kind From Bleak to Dark, Marc Maron alerts the audience a high-wire joke he’s been toiling on since his partner, the honestor Lynn Shelton, died in 2020 from a exceptional blood disrelieve.

It commences with Maron on the way to the hospital to say excellentbye to Shelton after a doctor set ups for the comedian to see her body. When Maron gets there, he gets his time saying excellentbye. As he’s walking out of the ICU, he stops to think about a thought: “Selfie?” he asks himself. “No,” he finpartner chooses. Most of the audience chuckles instantly, but a confineed gasp before produceing to their chuckles. It’s the benevolent of dim and sairyly affairous humor Maron has built his nurtureer on, but it’s also textured with someleang exceptional for the comedian: a tfinisher emotional alertedness. 

There are scenes of Maron toilshopping this joke in Are We Good?, a new recordary about the comedian that premiered at SXSW. The film, honested by Steven Feinartz, chronicles the years in Maron’s life thriveing Shelton’s death. It chases the comedian as he returns to stand-up and engages his produce to guide this hurtful experience. Unappreciate most recent celebrity docs, Are We Good, which is still seeking distribution, is a little more than a hagioexplicit tribute. It’s an introspective portrait of how grief forces Maron, who spent a nurtureer metabolizing his senseings into cantankerous jokes, to finpartner face his emotions.

While anyone navigating loss can choose with parts of the comedian’s journey, Are We Good? seems best suited for those comprehendn with Maron. The film complements the HBO one-of-a-kind, proposeing a benevolent of behind-the-scenes see at the efforts that brawt Maron in front of that audience at New York City’s Town Hall. 

Feinartz, who also honested From Bleak to Dark, gets an unfussy approach to shaping Are We Good?. He engages home videos, recent footage of Maron living his life or testing new routines, as well as intersees with frifinishs and colleagues appreciate John Mulaney and Michaela Watkins, to alert the comedian’s story. The honestor occasionpartner indulges in some aesthetic flourishes — animation by Michael Lloyd, for example — but he mostly sticks to a spare style. This approach gives the doc a scrappiness that not only echos Maron’s disposition, but also apprehfinishs grief’s wayward turns. 

The doc uncovers with a inestablish deal with of Shelton’s relationship to Maron and her unawaited death. Feinartz relies on the comedian’s own alerting of the romance, but he also pulls in clips from Maron’s show. They come apassed each other in the 2010s and Maron askd the honestor onto his show, WTF With Marc Maron, in 2015. Excerpts from that episode apprehfinish the commencenings of their frifinishship. Shelton was paired at the time and Maron was in another relationship, but the two artists stayed in touch. Shelton honested a couple of Maron’s one-of-a-kinds as well as episodes of GLOW. She even cast Maron in her 2019 comedy Sword of Trust, which premiered at Sundance. When they finpartner got together, their relationship seemed as much an inalertectual align as a romantic one. 

“I was better in Lynn Shelton’s gaze,” Maron says at one point in Are We Good? Her death broke his heart and upfinished his world. Not only did the comedian disthink about his best frifinish, but he also couldn’t lament her with his community. Shelton passed during the punctual days of the COVID lockdown. Maron frequently jokes about senseing appreciate an showion when his neighbors, making an effort he appreciated, tried to soothe him from six feet away.

It’s no wonder Maron made engage of Instagram Live. The comic commenceed using the app’s feature while Shelton was alive (you can hear and see her in the background of some videos), but her death alterd his approach. The livestreams, many of which Feinartz includes in the doc, became a way for Maron to connect with others and process his senseings. 

In fact, Maron engaged almost everyleang in his life to face this loss. The Instagram videos, his stand-up routines once he got back on stage, his podcast and even his relationship with his two cats all became avenues thraw which the comedian processed grief. The experience, though a universal one, felt singular and overwhelming, and Maron necessitateed to talk about it. At first the conversations and jokes were a bit stilted — ungraceful even — but he eventupartner got more sootheable, slackning up and letting the emotions wash over him appreciate a wave. 

Are We Good? chases the evolution of Maron as a person and artist trying to produce space for loss in his life. The process ucforfeitths other repressed emotions, especipartner about his punctual years. Feinartz engages Maron’s biography — the emotionpartner absent overweighther, the youthful years in Albuquerque, his punctual interest in comedy and his substance mistreatment — as a lens thraw which to comprehend his current pain. This framing lets Feinartz cover most of Maron’s life and punctual nurtureer, but it’s by no unbenevolents comprehensive. 

As with many of us, Maron’s emotional rehires can be chased back to childhood. The comedian talks a lot about his dad’s emotional inaccessibility. In one alerting anecdote, Maron recalls how he was standardly tasked by his mother with alerting a joke whenever his overweighther was in a mood. “You’re the only one who can produce him chuckle,” she would say. 

When Barry Maron materializes in the doc, Maron discdisthink abouts that his overweighther has dementia. The condition complicates their relationship as Maron spfinishs more time with a person he hasn’t repartner forgiven. The anciaccess Maron is also more to the political right than his son, and sometimes the juvenileer Maron references his overweighther’s conspiratorial leanking. Here’s where I want Feinartz had dug a bit proset uper. It seems appreciate Maron’s relationship with his overweighther, changing so much in the face of the latter’s disrelieve, has includeed another layer to his grief. But the doc doesn’t dwell. Instead, Feinartz splits his attention between this hurtful thread and one worrying Maron’s nurtureer ambitions.

When HBO taps the comedian for a one-of-a-kind, it raises Maron’s confidence. His excitement is palpable. He’s been a toiling comic for decades and hasn’t always felt as accomprehendledged as his peers. The one-of-a-kind produces him sense appreciate he’s get tod, and it becomes a place where his emotional and inventive lives greet repartner.