Critical Condition: The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling

The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling | SoHo, 8.30 Wednesday

➢ “Judd Apatow’s four-hour documentary for HBO, about his friend and mentor Garry Shandling, is a bittersweet study of a restless psyche, an insightful look into the world of comedy and an in-depth biography all in one … Shandling’s interest in Buddhism, hinted at in the title, is never really given life, and it’s left to Sarah Silverman of all people to observe, ‘It’s not because he’s Zen. It’s because he was in desperate need of being Zen.'” — The Hollywood Reporter.

➢ “Zen Diaries often loses focus, or gives excessive time to clips that seem extraneous. But it’s easy to forgive, because Apatow’s affection for his subject is so palpable, and so contagious, and because in the scattered collage of film and photos and affirmations and jokes it pinpoints the truth Shandling was looking for.” — The Atlantic.

➢ “The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling doesn’t solely focus on the career that audiences were familiar with. Using a chronological approach, Apatow outlines how Shandling‘s career was in many ways intertwined with the personal life that so many never got to see. So while this four-and-a-half-hour film feels like a career overview for a man who was both loved and misunderstood, it’s also a rare tribute movie that’s interested in discovering what the filmmaker didn’t know before the project started.” — IndieWire.

➢ “Apatow’s long tribute to the TV pioneer is the best, most focused thing he’s done since Freaks and Geeks. Zen Diaries is an intimate documentary about the man and his work, drawn from an extraordinary array of personal material, including home movies of Shandling’s childhood and adolescence in Arizona, photographs from every phase of his life, lengthy scenes and behind-the-scenes clips from The Larry Sanders Show and It’s Garry Shandling’s Show, and excerpts from the handwritten diaries he kept from the late 1970s until his death in 2016.” — New York.

➢ “Do not watch Judd Apatow’s new documentary if you are uncomfortable with yourself. The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling, a deeply personal portrait of the titular comedian, unpacks the fascinating life story of a prolific artist in search of himself, and by its devastating finale, you may be left wondering yourself, Who am I? Am I living my truth?” — Esquire.