• Consequence
  • Music
  • Film
  • TV
  • Heavy
Menu Consequence
Menu Shop Search Sale
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Features
  • Live
  • Podcasts
  • Videos
  • Mobile App
Advertisement
  • Reviews
  • Film Reviews

Film Review: Judd Apatow Interrogates the Past Using the Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling

HBO's four-and-a-half hour documentary offers a fascinating portrait of a complex comic

A-

Directed by

  • Judd Apatow

Starring

  • Garry Shandling
  • David Duchovny
  • Sacha Baron Cohen
  • Sarah Silverman

Release Year

  • 2018
Advertisement
Clint Worthington
March 29, 2018 | 9:30am ET

    On March 24, 2016, Garry Shandling died suddenly of a heart attack at age 66. Not only did he leave behind a tremendous legacy as one of the most influential, successful comedians of all time, he left behind a generation of comic minds inspired by his pitch-perfect sense of self-deprecating, challenging humor. Judd Apatow, lifelong friend and protege of Garry’s, was one of them, and his HBO special The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling (which aired this past week in two parts) serves as a brilliant eulogy for its subject, and an intriguing investigation of the effect he had on those whose lives he touched most.

    Over the course of four and a half hours, Zen Diaries tracks Shandling through the course of his entire life – from his childhood in Chicago (where he lost his beloved brother Barry at age 10 to cystic fibrosis) to his early days as a stand-up, progressing to the heights of his career as the mind behind subversive, deconstructive TV hits like It’s Garry Shandling’s Show! and The Larry Sanders Show. Later, we see Shandling’s subsequent fall from fame and the readjustment of expectations that came with it. As a comic and a human being, Shandling contained multitudes – he practiced Buddhism, meditating before every show; he never married or had any children; he was constantly restless about his comedy career and the direction of his life.

    As the title implies, Apatow uses Shandling’s lifelong collection of handwritten journals and diaries as the structure for his documentary. It’s a strategy which offers the deepest insight yet into a comic who regularly mined his own life for comic material. Amid stock footage of standup acts or TV shows, or Apatow’s many interviews with Shandling’s friends, family, and collaborators, Apatow frames these stages of his mercurial, unconventional life with scribblings of Shandling’s most intimate thoughts and feelings (occasionally narrated by Michael Cera when investigating the man’s childhood), revealing a man maddeningly in touch with his emotions and anxieties. “Am I funny?” he asks himself after bombing at a gig; around the time of his mother’s death, he writes, “the fact of death is as common as a tree.” That transparency was essential to Shandling’s work, the man feeling that authenticity is the secret not only to great comedy, but an honest life. The best comedians mined their material from an essential core of truth, and Zen Diaries reveals this innate understanding of self as key to his insight.

    Advertisement
    Related Video

    In some ways, though, Zen Diaries isn’t just about Shandling’s life, but about Apatow’s relationship to Shandling, and the role that he played as both comedy mentor and father figure. “In a lot of ways, he was a mystery to me,” says Apatow early in the doc, and Zen Diaries seems like an earnest, heartfelt attempt to explicate one of the most important – and inscrutable – people in his life after their death. To his credit, Apatow doesn’t impose himself overmuch in the documentary, but he makes the most impact in front of the camera during his interviews, functioning more as casual conversations between comedy contemporaries (including fellow Shandling acolytes Kevin Nealon, Sarah Silverman, and Sacha Baron Cohen) than investigative reporting. That’s to the doc’s credit, of course; it’s fitting that such a glowing eulogy of a man so beloved by those in the comedy world would function as a series of solemn, wryly funny two-person wakes. (One highlight is Apatow’s deceptively funny rapport with David Duchovny, longtime friend and on-screen flirt with Shandling; for more on their friendship, read Michael Roffman’s recent interview with Duchovny.)

    Despite Apatow’s swell of love for his subject, it’s so refreshing that Zen Diaries doesn’t become a lovefest for Shandling. Even those he loved knew he was a complicated guy – a man plagued by ego, insecurity, and a deep, abiding sense of neuroticism that made him as funny as he was difficult to work with. From his acrimonious split with fiancée Linda Doucett (which coincided with her removal from The Larry Sanders Show) to the rift that formed between him and his manager Brad Grey, Zen Diaries reveals a surprisingly dark side to Shandling, a capriciousness borne of his own neurotic desire to always keep moving.

    While the documentary’s first installment is optimistic – shining a light on Garry’s rise to fame and the way his brother’s untimely death (and a near-fatal car accident in his youth) spurred him to make the most of his life – it’s the second half that shows the chinks in Shandling’s armor. Apatow is uncompromising about the artistic sacrifices Shandling had to make to keep The Larry Sanders Show afloat amid an array of changing showrunners, as he is the man’s abortive attempt to become a movie star with What Planet Are You From?. (It must be a real disappointment for an actor to learn that Mike Nichols can’t stand you after one day of shooting.) Shandling always strove for greatness and never rested on his laurels, but found himself listless when his new directions didn’t always work out.

    Advertisement

    In the middle of all this is Apatow – the son that Shandling never had, trying to put the pieces together to form a picture of the man he felt so close to, but never really understood. The film never gestures toward a sense of journalistic objectivity, Apatow’s approach making clear from the opening frames this is a post-mortem (literally) of a comedy icon investigated from within the confines of the comedy world. At times, he lingers too much on previously filmed segments – the final hour plays the lion’s share of his Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee episode with little editorializing – but this just betrays his sincere and infectious love for the man, which pours through the screen and translates to the viewer. Even if you don’t love Garry Shandling more after watching this doc, you’ll at least understand a bit more about the many dichotomies the man existed in – Buddhist spiritualist and ambitious careerist, generous mentor and rage-filled taskmaster.

    Zen Diaries comes away with a fascinating, complex portrait of a man as unpredictable as he was hilarious, a comedy pioneer who lived in constant terror of being forgotten and ignored. Shandling’s life was one of myriad conflicts, many of them with himself; it’s this sense of multiplicity that Apatow captures with incredible alacrity over the ensuing four hours. Through his affectionate eye, and those of the dozens of comedy masterminds he cultivated and inspired, you get an idea, however brief, of how it must have been to be a friend and contemporary to someone so beloved.

    Trailer:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Reddit

More on this topic

  • Comedy
  • David Duchovny
  • Documentary
  • Garry Shandling
  • HBO
  • HBO Documentary
  • Judd Apatow
  • Kevin Nealon
  • Michael Cera
  • Mike Nichols
  • Sacha Baron Cohen

Sign up for updates

Subscribe to our email digest and get the latest breaking news in music, film, and television, tour updates, access to exclusive giveaways, and more straight to your inbox.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitch
  • Tiktok
Advertisement

Popular Stories

Ricky Martin

Music

Ricky Martin Slapped with Restraining Order in Puerto Rico

friends african studies donation

TV

Friends Creator Marta Kauffman Feels Guilty the Show Was So White, Donates $4 Million to an African Studies Program

LIMITED EDITION: Shop the New GWAR Bud Of Gods Fanny Pack Bundle, 25% Off

LIMITED EDITION: Shop the New GWAR Bud Of Gods Fanny Pack Bundle, 25% Off

Advertisement

Tom Cruise Birthday Random Facts

Features

60 Random Tom Cruise Facts to Celebrate His 60th Birthday

Personalized Stories

Around The Web

Latest Stories

B
The Princess Movie Review Hulu

The Princess Review: The Raid By Way of Tangled, With a Kick-Ass Joey King

July 1, 2022

C+
The Black Phone Review

The Black Phone Picks Up More Static Than Scares: Review

June 23, 2022

B+
Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe Review

Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe Is One of the Funniest Films of the Year: Review

June 22, 2022

B+
Elvis Review Austin Butler

Elvis Review: Baz Luhrmann's First Biopic Is Not As Absurd and Ahistorical As You Might Expect

June 16, 2022

Advertisement

News

  • Music
  • New Music
  • Album Streams
  • Upcoming Releases
  • Film
  • TV
  • Pop Culture
  • Tours

Reviews

  • Music Reviews
  • Film Reviews
  • TV Reviews
  • Concert Reviews
  • Festival Reviews

Features

  • Editorials
  • Interviews
  • Lists
  • Rankings
  • Artist of the Month
  • Song of the Week

Live

  • Concert Tickets
  • Festival Tickets
  • Festival News
  • Tour Dates
  • Livestreams
  • Music Instruments & Gear

Heavy

  • News
  • Interviews
  • Concerts

More

  • Podcasts
  • Videos
  • Music Videos
  • Streaming
  • Wellness
  • Giveaways

Other sites

  • Heavy Consequence
  • Consequence Media
  • About
  • Privacy policy
  • Advertising
  • Terms
  • Contact
  • Copyright
  • Do not sell my personal information

Download our app

  • Get it on the App Store
  • Get it on Google Play
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitch
  • Tiktok
Consequence
Current story

Film Review: Judd Apatow Interrogates the Past Using the Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling

Menu Shop Search Sale
Consequence
News
  • All News
  • Music
  • New Music
  • Album Streams
  • Upcoming Releases
  • Film
  • TV
  • Pop Culture
  • Tours
Reviews
  • Music Reviews
  • Film Reviews
  • TV Reviews
  • Concert Reviews
  • Festival Reviews
Features
  • Editorials
  • Interviews
  • Cover Stories
  • Lists
  • Rankings
  • Artist of the Month
  • Song of the Week
Live
  • Concert Tickets
  • Festival Tickets
  • Festival News
  • Tour Dates
  • Livestreams
  • Music Instruments & Gear
Podcasts
  • The Opus
  • Kyle Meredith With...
  • Stanning BTS
  • The Story Behind the Song
  • The What
  • Going There with Dr. Mike
  • The Rome and Duddy Show
  • Rootsland
  • This Must Be The Gig
  • Assembly
Videos
  • Interview
  • Video Essay
  • Fan Theories
  • Sole Kitchen
  • Annotated Video
Heavy
  • News
  • Interviews
  • Concerts
  • Premieres
  • Culture
  • Beyond the Boys Club
  • Mining Metal
Shop

Follow Consequence

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitch
  • Tiktok
Close
Close