US EditionMovie Review: 'Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!' Is a Sweeping Tribute to a Comic Genius
The two-part HBO documentary covers Mel Brooks’ Jewish identity, landmark films, and influence on comedians like Jerry Seinfeld and Adam Sandler, premiering Jan. 23-24.
- On Jan. 23, HBO debuts a two-part documentary on Mel Brooks, co-directed by Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio, with Part 1 airing at 8 p.m., followed by Part 2 on Jan. 24.
- Rooted in childhood admiration and long familiarity, Judd Apatow, filmmaker and longtime interviewer, built the film from decades of interviews and his personal archive collected since his teenage years, shaping the documentary's tone.
- Featuring interviews with high-profile peers, the film includes Jerry Seinfeld, Adam Sandler and Sarah Silverman, traces Mel Brooks’s Brooklyn childhood and landmark films, and centers his Jewishness while probing Holocaust joke acceptability.
- Apatow’s film reasserts Mel Brooks’s influence across generations as Amazon MGM Studios develops a Spaceballs sequel and FX prepares a Young Frankenstein–inspired TV series.
- The documentary asks whether certain jokes remain acceptable as Directors Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio confront provocative sketches like the Yiddish-speaking Indian and comedy about Hitler.
27 Articles
27 Articles
Review: 'Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!' chronicles the comedic genius of a living legend
Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio's two-part HBO documentary examines the long career of Mel Brooks, whose work has helped shape and influence comedy over the decades.
Movie Review: ‘Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!’ is a sweeping tribute to a comic genius
It’s not often we get to pay tribute, in full, to our giants while they’re still with us. But in “Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!” Judd Apatow dutifully and affectionately celebrates the laugh-filled life of a comedy legend…
‘Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!’ Review: Judd Apatow’s HBO Doc Pays Loving, Lovely Tribute to a Comedy Giant
Co-directed by Mike Bonfiglio, the four-parter celebrates the 'Blazing Saddles' auteur, his friendship with Carl Reiner and his marriage to Anne Bancroft.
Judd Apatow grew up idolizing Mel Brooks. Now he’s telling Brooks' story in an HBO documentary.
When Judd Apatow was growing up on Long Island, there was no debate about who ruled the comedy world. “Nobody was funnier than Mel Brooks,” Apatow once wrote. “Mel Brooks was the king.” Decades later, after himself becoming a prolific Jewish filmmaker and comedy impresario, Apatow has turned that childhood certainty into a sweeping tribute. “Mel Brooks: The 99-Year-Old Man!,” a two-part HBO documentary debuting this week, is a career-spanning po…
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