Critic Reviews

Apatow’s film overflows with great, smart commentary on who Shandling was and how much of an enigma he remained all his life. ... Apatow is blessedly generous about reminding us how extraordinary Shandling was by including a good number of clips from his standup and his TV shows. In other words, Zen Diaries is very, very funny and very obsessed.

Diaries is for Shandling fans, certainly, but it’s especially for any kid who might want to become a comic, or write for TV or get into this industry. “Zen Diaries” is a nearly five-hour-long master’s degree in “the business,” and also a sober, clear-eyed view of the risks as much as the rewards.

My only complaint about the film is it felt too short.

Diary entries come to life in Shandling‘s own handwriting and illustrate one method Apatow uses to make this film a visually dynamic experience. ... As a tribute, a eulogy, and an appreciation, The Zen Diaries is a even-handed look at someone who sought to bring meaningful change into other people’s lives as he searched for that same sense of fulfillment himself.

Offers a fascinating window into one of comedy's most fertile minds.

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 power of Zen Diaries is that it allows you to share, for a few hours, a sense of what that must have felt like.

Zen Diaries assembles a comprehensive (occasionally too comprehensive) collage from such footage, combining it with home-movies, broadcast clips, vintage audio, new interviews, and excerpts from the copious journal entries the comedian left behind when he died of a heart attack in 2016.

Presented over two nights, but easy to digest in a single sitting, Zen Diaries is a worthwhile account of Shandling's career and evolving philosophy, an insightful exploration of stand-up comedy and the comedic voice, and a sad contemplation and reckoning from those Shandling left behind and those grappling with his legacy.

Anybody who was inspired and moved by Shandling’s work won’t complain about being able to luxuriate in this exhaustive account. Even the slack portions are intriguing because of the access Apatow has to the records of Shandling’s time on Earth.