Director Steven Feinarzt’s documentary Are We Good? dives deep into the acerbic, bitter, cynical, multifaceted persona that is Marc Maron, aka “Mr. Cranky”. It may not bring anything new to the doc table but works perfectly fine as a good, old-fashioned study of a renowned, divisive public persona, with a poignant emphasis on grief and the way we deal with it.
Feinarzt and writer Julie Seabaugh trace Marc’s life, how he became a comedian, did drugs, rose to fame, met independent filmmaker Lynn Shelton — the expected biographical beats. Archival footage revealing Maron’s early, cocaine-addled stints at small bars in New York is interspersed with current footage of 60-year-old Maron playing with his cat, “talking at [his] audience” in clubs, doing podcasts, along with multiple famous talking heads sharing their thoughts on Maron.
The most touching moments revolve around the loss of Maron’s partner, Lynn, with whom he collaborated on the TV show Glow, among other projects. Grief-stricken after her death, his voice breaks on a podcast. He channels that grief into his standup, a great way to exorcise his demons, if not particularly side-splitting. In general, Maron’s standup isn’t your typical “lead-up-to-the-punchline” routine. It’s more conversational, retrospective, with deliberate contemplative pauses, the comedian sitting on a stool and sharing his sometimes abrasive, meandering thoughts with the audience.
“…revealing Maron’s early, cocaine-addled stints at small bars…”
Feinarzt wisely avoids trying to manufacture revelations where there are none. The film is less interested in exposing hidden scandals or radically re-framing Maron’s career than in quietly observing an artist who has spent decades turning his own flaws into material. The documentary moves at an unhurried pace, allowing interviews, archival footage, and contemporary performances to speak for themselves. While this straightforward approach occasionally makes Are We Good? feel a touch conventional compared to more formally adventurous documentaries, it also suits its subject. Maron has always built his career on candor rather than spectacle, and the filmmaking reflects that same philosophy.
“I was one of the handful of people who could tolerate him,” says David Cross. “Marc’s having a bad time, all day, and then gets on stage and completely owns the audience,” says John Mulaney. Maron tells audience members to shut the fu*k up. He openly doesn’t regard himself as in the same league as, say, Conan. He’s built differently. I personally may disagree with some of his political views; I may not find some of his material particularly insightful or funny (I like him better as a film and TV actor), but objectively I can see the appeal; I respect his approach to the craft.
By turns poignant and entertaining, Are We Good? reminds us that we all deal with grief in our own way, yet we are all fundamentally similar despite the surface differences. It functions both as a study of grief and a look at the life of an aging comedian. Whether we’re good as a collective society remains to be seen, but if the question is about the quality of the documentary, then the answer is “yep.”
"…built his career on candor rather than spectacle, and the filmmaking reflects that same philosophy..."
