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CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
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Positive:
9
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews
Mar 23, 2018
Season 1 Review:
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.
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Mar 23, 2018
Season 1 Review:
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.
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IndieWireMar 26, 2018
Season 1 Review:
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.
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Mar 28, 2018
Season 1 Review:
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.
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Mar 26, 2018
Season 1 Review:
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.
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Mar 26, 2018
Season 1 Review:
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.
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