Biographical documentary Who is Martin Mull? (now on Netflix) is destined for a sad ending: its subject passed away in 2024, and its director, funnyman Bob Saget, died in 2022 before he could finish the project (which fell to co-director Neil Berkeley).
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which → destine → Berkeley
This deep dive into Mull’s life and career — among a clutch of comedy-centric docs debuting on Netflix this month, including profiles of Norm MacDonald and Maria Bamford — shows us that he wasn’t just a comedian and TV/movie star, but also an accomplished painter, which he considered to be his true calling.
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he → debut → us
And the film retains its present-tense title despite its past-tense subject, suggesting that Mull’s work will definitely outlive him.
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work → retain → him
WHO IS MARTIN MULL?: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
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MULL → stream → IT
Right off the bat, Mull offers an answer to the title: “Who gives a shit?”
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Who → offer → shit
It’s a typical quip from a man who made countless people laugh as a touring musical comedian in the 1970s and a TV perennial for decades after that.
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people → ’ → that
But that’s not how he saw himself.
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he → ’ → himself
In archival clips he repeatedly says showbiz was the “day job” that earned him a living so he could go home and be a struggling artist.
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he → say → living
He calls himself a “jerk of all trades” who didn’t excel in one avenue but could do “a number of different things and get passing grades.”
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who → call → grades
Most Boomers and Gen Xers know Mull as a scene-stealer who appeared on game show Hollywood Squares and enjoyed recurring parts on TV series like Roseanne, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and Arrested Development.
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who → know → Roseanne
He shifted from being a star of the comedy circuit — notably preceding his superstar pal Steve Martin’s arena-packing success — to TV with the mock-cable access “talk show” Fernwood 2 Night, and eventually guest-hosted The Tonight Show 30 times.
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He → shift → Show
Saget began filming the doc in 2018, roping in family members and a handful of luminaries to provide commentary and context for Mull’s life, from growing up in smalltown Ohio with a cruel and abusive father to attaining a master’s degree in painting and getting his start in showbiz as a songwriter.
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Saget → begin → songwriter
Mull’s wife, Wendy Haas, and daughter Maggie Mull contribute, as do Martin, Penn Jillette, Tom Waits, Fred Willard, and Norman Lear.
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Martin → contribute → ?
And filming took long enough for the documentary to become a meditation on mortality.
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documentary → take → mortality
What Movies Will It Remind You Of?
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It → remind → You
Steve! (Martin): A Documentary in 2 Pieces, Albert Brooks: Defending My Life and John Candy: I Like Me are similarly insightful profiles of comics from Martin’s generation.
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I → defend → generation
Our Take: Mull is as much a warm tribute to the man as it is a thoughtful psychological profile of what drives an artist to create art.
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artist → drive → art
Mull is reluctant to detail his relationship with his father, although his siblings share that the patriarch was physically abusive.
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patriarch → detail → father
Not to Martin, though — he was the object of his father’s indifference, and others speculate that Martin sought attention as a comedian for that reason.
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Martin → speculate → reason
But his desire to be a painter above all else becomes clear the more the doc examines the themes he explored in his work, which are perhaps best described as bleak, surreal riffs on Norman Rockwell-style portraits of mid-century American suburban life.
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which → become → life
It’s clear that Mull’s work as a comedian and actor, brilliant as it could be, wasn’t addressing what was in his head and heart, and painting was a function of processing his upbringing.
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painting → ’ → upbringing
(Although you could argue that his satirical mockumentary TV series A History of White People in America wouldn’t have been made by someone who wasn’t disillusioned by middle-American societal tropes.)
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who → argue → tropes
That peek into Mull’s psychological profile, and intimate moments he shares with Martin, Saget, and others, make the doc more than just a series of talking heads praising its subject, and the melancholy reflections in its final moments will resonate with viewers.
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reflections → share → viewers
Instead of presenting a scrubbed and varnished biography, Who is Martin Mull? asks a pertinent question, and dutifully answers it.
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Mull → present → it
Our Call: We definitely know and understand Mull better from this excellent bio.
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We → know → bio
Werner Herzog hugged him once.
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Herzog → hug → him
The Aporia
