Stiller and Meara: Nothing is Lost Review
Stiller and Meara: Nothing is Lost is a heartwarming documentary by an honest Ben Stiller that takes a closer look at the career of his parents, Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, who became famous as a double act in the 70s through their appearances on the Ed Sullivan show. The film follows Ben and his family as they pack away his father’s apartment after his passing in 2020, and follows Ben as he takes a closer look at his parents’ relationship through a series of home tapes, belongings, and talking heads.
The first half of the documentary focuses on how Stiller and Meara were formed, with Jerry wanting to succeed in comedy and Anne wanting to originally be a dramatic actress. Despite those dreams, Jerry pushed for Anne to try to embrace comedy after noticing how funny his wife was in their daily life. Their double act was soon formed and through regular appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show (filmed in the now home of Stephen Colbert!), they slowly began to win over audiences and become well known. This rise to fame led to tensions behind the scenes, though, with Anne not wanting the fame quite as much as Jerry. It was particular interesting to see the talking heads reflecting on tense moments at home where Ben and his sister Amy couldn’t tell what was real and what was practice as they grew up. It must have been an incredible difficult household for the children dealing with famous parents, something that was continued with Ben’s own children.
This is echoed early on when it’s established that both generations of the Stiller family grew up in a household that liked to film their lives as much as possible and as a result, these home tapes form the backbone of the film, as well as a regular recurring emotional touch point for the viewer. With Stiller and Meara’s early TV appearances and all their home footage really adding to the reflections on their lives from Ben and his family, with sister Amy Stiller, as well as other memories from contributors as Stiller’s wife Christine Taylor-Stiller, Christopher Walken, and Stephen Colbert.
The documentary also offers a really interesting reflection on the symmetry between his own relationship with his kids compared to what he experienced with his own parents in the second half of the film. It looks into the idea of whether we repeat the mistakes of our parents and what we can learn from the past. Stiller reflects that he tried to avoid the trap of putting his work above his family, but over the course of the film, he realises he has, in fact, replicated it. One of the film’s most touching moments comes in this section when Stiller’s son tells his Dad that he and his sister feel they regularly came second to Ben’s work, just like Ben had previously reflected he did with his.
The film is easily Stiller’s most personal film as a director and will inevitably be a lovely keepsake for him and his family for years to come. For the viewer, however, it gives us a raw insight into a famous family that has been on our screens for multiple generations, and gives us the opportunity to reflect on our relationships with our family. Stiller and Meara: Nothing is Lost allows Ben to look deeper into his feelings around the loss of his parents in order to challenge himself on how he interacts with his family and the end product is a lovely, moving film that will appeal to all.
★★★★
On Apple TV from October 24th / Ben Stiller, Amy Stiller, Christine Taylor-Stiller, Christopher Walken, Stephen Colbert, Jerry Stiller, Anne Meara / Dir: Ben Stiller / Apple
https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1211290295647479
(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
Discover more from
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
About the Author
