An uneven chronicle of grief, Steven Feinartz’s Are We Good? follows comic and podcast host Marc Maron throughout and after the isolation of COVID lockdown, throughout which he misplaced his associate, the filmmaker Lynn Shelton. It is a documentary of immense element and an enormous variety of opinions on Maron’s character, and the way he offers with loss by means of stand-up comedy. Nonetheless, this context pales compared to his precise artwork and creative course of — the temporary glimpses of that are extra attractive than the movie surrounding it.
The film feels, at occasions, like having a prolonged stand-up routine interrupted as a way to clarify its origins. For a comic book like Maron, whose work is full of expository, self-reflexive piss and vinegar, this doubling down typically proves extraneous. Basically, Are We Good? would not offer you that rather more than Maron’s current specials.
What’s Are We Good? about?
At its core, the movie is about Shelton, and finally, her absence. The opening she leaves in Maron’s life is central to his story, and in that vein, Feinartz creates an adequately radiant portrait of the late indie darling.
The strengths of Are We Good? lie in its edit, courtesy of Derek Boonstra, Natalie Ancona, and Jenn Harper. By means of previous Instagram Dwell broadcasts from Maron’s account, an intimate lockdown portrait emerges of the comedian’s life earlier than and instantly after Shelton’s passing, affording him the chance to basically maintain his personal digital camera and inform his personal story. Nonetheless, exterior of this particular setup, Are We Good? tends to lie in wait, virtually meandering by means of rote documentarian traditions till it decides to toss in a number of clips of Maron on stage.
This highlight is the place Maron is most comfy, unfiltered, and susceptible — it is the place he is most himself — however there is not practically sufficient of it within the film. Whereas it may be enjoyable to produce other comics opine on his persona, from John Mulaney to David Cross, their observations seldom provide something new. That is no fault of theirs, thoughts you. Slightly, it is an consequence of Maron’s informal supply and his tendency to self-deprecate, which conveys the identical data in its most uncooked and potent kind. If something, that is the unsuitable form of film for his talent set and magnificence of comedy.
Are We Good? isn’t an excellent match for Marc Maron
There are a number of moments in the course of the manufacturing, as Feinartz follows Maron round his dwelling with a digital camera, throughout which the comedian appears aggravated. That is, in fact, a part of his idiosyncratic attraction and a part of what drew Shelton to him within the first place. Nonetheless, one will get the sense that the filmmakers should have taken Maron’s lucid criticisms to coronary heart.
There are moments when, seemingly as a joke for the viewers (or maybe a ploy to playfully annoy Maron), the documentary employs a particular flourish quickly earlier than or after the comic decries it. As an illustration, the usage of an animated photograph montage, one among a number of “gimmicks” Maron critiques as an pointless substitute for Feinartz’s sheer glut of up-close-and-personal-footage.
Mashable High Tales
Getting the cranky aspect of Maron is enjoyable and trustworthy, however this method additionally hangs a lampshade on a few of the film’s greatest flaws. Because the associate of a former director, as an actor himself, and because the long-time host of the podcast WTF with Marc Maron (which has had quite a few high-profile friends from each side of the digital camera), Maron clearly is aware of a factor or two about motion pictures. It is laborious to keep away from the sense that he is proper about these quite a few prospers feeling like pointless distractions.
It might be one factor if Are We Good? then adjusted to his whims, however that it treats his jabs as mere complaints ends in the film feeling at odds with its topic.
Are We Good? takes a distant method
Plenty of the film accommodates archival photographs and video of Maron, but it surely makes use of these to clarify varied highlights (and low factors) throughout his life very like a Wikipedia article would possibly. For probably the most half, it solely captures Maron as he desires to be seen. It is not a movie of inquiry a lot as merely remark.
It might be completely different if Are We Good? have been treating Maron as some form of unknowable enigma but it surely’s very a lot an overarching biographical portrait, given the breadth of its previous footage. And but, its method stays essentially at odds along with his personal: one among opening the darkest, angriest elements of himself to his viewers by means of frank dialog.
As a film, it is too withdrawn and tepid, relying too closely on that which Maron supplies. Its lens seems to be, however would not see, and it actually would not search to probe previous its topic’s annoyance to seize what lies beneath it. Feinartz appears respectful of Maron’s loss, however maybe Are We Good? is just too respectful for a comic who trades in stunning his viewers by pushing sudden emotional buttons.
In reality, the movie is arguably at its strongest when pulling from some significantly susceptible episodes of WTF — his Shelton in-memoriam, or his discussions on loss with Andrew Garfield and Patton Oswalt — throughout which it accompanies the audio clips with visible waveforms. These white, musical squiggles on a black background tackle an virtually religious kind within the course of, turning into jagged, unnerving externalizations of grief. However once more, even these soundbites are totally on Maron’s phrases.
There’s maybe a extra confrontational model of Are We Good? — both on some reducing room ground or just within the creativeness — which additional pushes Maron into his signature paradoxical zone, the place he is most relaxed bleeding for his artwork. Then once more, one might simply as simply argue that this model would entail Maron’s stand-up specials in full. So, it is laborious to not surprise if viewers can be higher off watching these as a substitute, slightly than being enticed by clips from them, earlier than having them always yanked away.
Demise of a Unicorn was reviewed out of its premiere on the 2025 SXSW Film Festival.
