ARE WE GOOD? - Mark Reviews Movies

Are We Good?, Utopia Distribution

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Review by Mark Dujsik | October 2, 2025

It is not easy to talk about grief, and it is a less but still uncomfortable prospect to speak about someone else's. That feels especially true when approaching the documentary Are We Good? about comedian and, for a little while longer according to the man himself, podcast host Marc Maron. Maron has never been shy about his personal life, which he usually perceives to be a mess in assorted ways, and his feelings, which are often self-deprecating in a way that doesn't come across as a comedic bit. Most will relate to this outlook at some points in their lives at least, and some of us comprehend it a bit better.

In other words, Maron is not a comic for everyone, which makes him distinct in a business where it's difficult to stick out from the crowd. Even so, the man himself would say—and often has said—that his humor hasn't earned him the fame of peers who have been at the gig as long as he has.

What does any of this have to do with grief? Well, that's the thing. It doesn't, but in a way, it also does, because Maron doesn't quite know how to see himself and his career in the positive perspective they deserve. What happens when a person like that loses the one thing that made him happier than he has ever been in his entire life?

That would be another person, of course, namely filmmaker Lynn Shelton, with whom Maron was friends from almost immediately upon meeting her for an episode of his WTF with Marc Maron podcast in 2015, whom he started dating and living with a few years later, and who suddenly died in 2020. Despite the timing, Shelton didn't die from COVID-19. It was a rare blood disease, Maron points out, and as a joke that doesn't sound like one when he says it, he adds that the cause of her death at least made her unique.

Is that funny, or is it just slightly hidden honesty, because Maron genuinely believes Shelton was unique in every way imaginable, in the form of a joke? That's the thing with Maron, who can be bluntly honest or arrive at some deeper honesty in a subdued way. This documentary, directed by Steven Feinartz, follows the comedian as he tries to confront his grief in a way that could be funny for an audience, is respectful of the woman he loved so deeply and dearly, and isn't so honest that he risks breaking down in tears on stage.

That last part isn't necessarily a spoken goal on Maron's part, but watching and listening to the man speak of Shelton when he isn't trying to be funny, it must be on his mind. Just the unexpected sight of her boots, jacket, and hat in the middle of a social media livestream is enough to start the tears, force him to walk away, and figure out a way to turn his sadness into a bit.

Asking a comedian to explain where a joke comes from, how it has been crafted, and other stuff like that is almost certainly a way to get that comic to stop talking to you. Feinartz, who has worked with several (including Maron himself during the shooting of the documentary) by way of directing assorted stand-up specials, is in-the-know enough not to ask such silly questions, but somehow, he gets Maron to talk about those answers, anyway. The man's comedy is so connected to his life, his worldview, and his emotions that any conversation with Maron about any of those subjects, in a way, is also a conversation about his material. Maron trusts the filmmaker enough to talk about all of it—not only on a personal level, but also on a professional one.

The resulting film is kind of a biography, since Maron has to set up why Shelton was so important to him, after decades of trying to feel good about himself through the work, by way of drugs and alcohol, and in a pair of marriages that didn't work out. He never was in any way that he can recall, because Maron's mind works in such a way that, as he puts it, he's immediately anticipating something bad to follow up anything good that happens to him.

When Shelton came into his life, Maron was happy to have her as a friend, knew in the back of his mind that their relationship could be more than that if the timing and circumstances ever aligned, and genuinely did start to feel a bit better about himself when they became a romantic couple. If a woman as talented and kind and generous and everyway else others who knew Shelton describe her as could love him, Maron can't, basically, be all that bad. Maron's colleagues and friends, who—including the likes of David Cross, John Mulaney, Caroline Rhea, and Michaela Watkins—are also interviewed here, saw just enough change in the pessimistic guy to know that this relationship was particularly special.

The film, then, isn't just insightful about Maron. It also, if indirectly, serves as a testimony of Shelton's virtues and, more broadly, as an examination of the grieving process. For Maron, that's partly through comedy, but because the man is so forthright and unafraid to speak his mind, Are We Good? gets at some deeper truths about grief beyond the jokes.

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