Comic, actor, and interviewer Marc Maron has at all times had rather a lot on his thoughts. In case you’ve ever seen his stand-up, you’ve gotten a full dose of his biting reflections on anxieties in regards to the world and his place in it. Nevertheless, this has at all times been, to some extent, a efficiency he’s labored at over months in venues throughout the nation to prepare for a particular.
In Steven Feinartz’s documentary “Are We Good?” (taking part in Tribeca Competition on June 14), we not solely see Maron chipping away at this course of however glimpse the person behind the mirth concurrently making an attempt to grieve and use his artwork as a approach of processing the lack of his accomplice: the late, nice filmmaker Lynn Shelton, who died in Could 2020. The end result could be his 2023 particular, “From Bleak to Darkish,” which Feinartz additionally directed and noticed Maron grapple with tips on how to interact with this loss and discover a approach ahead. Whereas he’s at all times been susceptible in his act and soon-ending, 16-year-old “WTF” podcast, letting a digital camera into his life off-stage like this was new territory.
The documentary, which premiered in March at SXSW, required Maron to provide a excessive diploma of entry to his life. That is one thing, in typical Maron vogue, he humorously grumbles about all through the movie. In an IndieWire interview following the Austin premiere alongside Feinartz, Maron spoke about this expertise and the way his approach into stand-up specials is completely different from most.
“My course of is transferring by means of this stuff to perhaps no laughter or not fairly having a technique to make it humorous or a throughline to issues. Seeing that a part of my course of, which isn’t a regular stand-up course of, [is where] I knew going into [the documentary] that telling the tales [was] going to be emotionally loaded, and I didn’t have any actual management over these feelings,” Maron stated. “However I knew that being public with the emotions would finally allow me to settle into that, and if I believed in comedy’s capability to raise these emotions into one thing frequent and humorous, if not touching, that it could reveal itself on stage. So we had to do this.”
Feinartz stated that the movie was then about figuring their approach as they went with none preconception. In whole, the duo shot for 3 years as Maron labored on his particular, making an attempt to determine life after Shelton, questioning whether or not it was even his place to speak about her loss in any respect. The artwork of acting on stage is acquainted to Maron, however within the case of “Are We Good?,” he usually forgot the digital camera was even there, getting into his residence and life as he went by means of the levels of grieving.
“For higher or for worse, the work I do basically is pretty candid and private. The actual query turns into ‘How do you do that? When do you do it?’ The selection to do a podcast episode days after [Shelton] handed away, my producer was like, ‘We don’t ever should do a podcast once more should you can’t deal with it.’ And I’m like, ‘Effectively, I don’t know, I feel it’s form of essential to show this course of in a approach.’ As a result of all people goes by means of it. Somehow, you may’t outrun grief, and it’s one thing that individuals don’t actually speak about,” Maron stated. “A part of what I used to be pondering is I owe it to myself, and simply what I do as an artist or performer is to have a public expertise with this.”
Maron first met Shelton when he did a podcast episode along with her in 2015. Together with creating a relationship collectively, Shelton additionally directed Maron in episodes of the tv collection “GLOW,” his particular “Finish Instances Enjoyable,” and her remaining movie “The Sword of Belief.” This connection wouldn’t have occurred with out the podcast and, in early June, a number of months after we spoke, Maron introduced that his audio present, which he started within the early days of the medium in September 2009, would finish this fall amid feeling “burnt out.”
Throughout our interview, Maron shared how he grappled with how a lot he ought to discuss his grieving course of within the documentary, understanding Shelton’s demise isn’t his alone to mourn.
“I had a reasonably quick period of time with Lynn. We have been actually simply beginning out, and he or she has had a profound influence on the movie neighborhood, the artwork neighborhood in Seattle; she has household that I didn’t actually know,” Maron stated. “What do you do in relation to the truth that you’re not the one one grieving, you’re simply the one who’s public, and the way do you respect that?”
When it got here to their artistic partnership, which reached its peak in “The Sword of Belief,” the place Maron starred whereas Shelton wrote and directed and made a quick look herself, the method of working collectively gave him the boldness to tackle extra performing transferring ahead. (Since Shelton’s demise, he’s had roles in movies like “To Leslie” and “The Order” and reveals like “Reservation Canine.”)
“She believed on this expertise I had that I didn’t essentially consider in,” Maron stated. “After I take into consideration performing or once I’m doing it, I do take into consideration her rather a lot and her perception in me, as a result of her perception in me saved me getting in that individual zone.”
Whereas acknowledging that he’s a bit “cussed” in terms of receiving path, he stated that Shelton nonetheless acquired a kick out of him performing and that the 2 would share in laughing whereas working.
“Her sensibility round naturalism and performing was one thing that impressed me and helped me to it. Regardless that I used to be resistant, and I’d get cranky. She’d be like, ‘Can we do one other take?,’ and I’d be like, ‘Why?’ She’d say, ‘Simply belief me.’ Finally, she was proper, and I trusted her.”
Maron stated he’s now trying into directing a challenge primarily based on his longtime good friend Sam Lipsyte’s most up-to-date novel, “No One Left to Come On the lookout for You,” which he and Lipsyte have been collaborating on.
“We’re transferring ahead with that, however you already know it’s a protracted course of, and, hopefully, we’ll see it by means of. That’s the plan,” Maron stated. “You’ve acquired to determine tips on how to discover the time for all the things and nonetheless have a life. With the directing, it’s simply a kind of issues that I’ve at all times been interested by, and I at all times wished to attempt it.”
With regards to Shelton’s movies and her creative legacy, Maron stated that there’s one underappreciated work that also resonates for him years later.
“I actually like that film she did with Jay [Duplass], ‘Exterior In,’” Maron stated. “She acquired an amazing factor out of Edie Falco, and I actually suppose that film isn’t talked about rather a lot… She was an actual artist, and he or she had an actual sensibility about what she wished out of a scene.”
As our dialog concluded, I requested Maron in regards to the finale of “Sword of Belief,” the place his character goes to go to Shelton’s character’s residence and leaves her groceries with out saying something.
“That was a robust second as a result of there was lots of emotion there that was real,” Maron stated. “All of it felt very linked. However yeah, leaving the groceries on the door, that’s heavy… Her finest work was actually forward of her, and no matter we have been gonna be was actually forward of her.”
“Are We Good?” screens June 14 and 15 on the 2025 Tribeca Competition. It’s presently searching for U.S. distribution.