Are We Good?

by Mike McGranaghan

There’s a very strong possibility Marc Maron will not like Are We Good?, the documentary Steven Feinartz has made about him. Early on, the legendarily cranky comedian/podcast host second-guesses his own decision to participate. It’s hard to blame Maron, though. His partner, Sword of Trust director Lynn Shelton, died of a rare blood disease in 2020, and the movie is meant to capture his efforts to find humor in a period of overwhelming grief.

To his credit, Maron opens up fully, discussing the loss in painfully honest terms and even breaking down on occasion. Archival footage, from joint interviews to social media clips, tells the tale of the relationship. After a lifetime of problems that included failed marriages and a drug addiction, he finally found somebody who made him happy and, just as importantly, accepted him for who he is. Maron remarks how unfair it all seems to have Shelton taken away from him under those circumstances.

Scenes of the comedian onstage are heartrending. His freeform mourning leads to blurting out edgy jokes, like pondering if he should take a selfie with Shelton’s corpse. Such gags could come off as callous, except that Maron is visibly trying to figure out how to make his grief feel less all-consumingly painful. Laughing at the concept of death itself is a logical approach for his comedic style.

Celebrity pals like David Cross, John Mulaney, and Conan O’Brien appear to testify about the Maron/Shelton relationship, as well as to express admiration for their friend’s determination to push forward. Fans of the WTF podcast will be particularly interested in the sections detailing how it came into existence. The show becomes a lifeline, allowing Maron to intimately process his mourning with listeners and guests alike. Stand-up and WTF are the two major things in his life, so he uses them to find his way to a new normal.

Are We Good? is sometimes sad, sometimes riotously funny, and always extremely moving. It takes a certain amount of courage to be this vulnerable for the cameras, to invite the world into one’s grief. Whether he ends up regretting his participation or not, Marc Maron has found himself at the center of a documentary that provides an empathetic cinematic hug to anyone who has suffered a devastating loss.

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