Nothing Is Lost’ a ‘family therapy session’ — not that there’s anything wrong with that

Ben Stiller spent his COVID-19 pandemic lockdown connecting with his past in a major way. That’s when the actor and filmmaker started work on the project that became Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost, which explores the personal and professional legacy of his late performer parents, Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara. Stuffed with archival and home movie footage of the famed comedy duo alongside new interviews with their children and grandchildren, the film is both a loving tribute to their memory and a frank acknowledgement of the toll that accompanies being part of a showbiz family. (Meara died in 2015; her husband followed in 2020.)

Following its New York Film Festival premiere, Nothing Is Lost debuts on today Apple TV, which is in the Stiller business courtesy of the Emmy favorite Severance. Critics are mostly moved by Stiller’s extremely personal portrait of his mom and dad; the film has a 94 precent score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 75 percent score on Metacritic.

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Writing in The New York Times, Ben Kenigsberg calls Nothing Is Lost “charming” and credits Stiller’s dual focus on his parents’ careers and their personal lives, particularly in relation to how Ben and his sister Amy Stiller were impacted growing up.

“They were married people who played romantic partners, and having their careers bound together that way sometimes proved less than ideal,” Kenigsberg notes. “The other through line is that Ben begins to see similarities between his upbringing and how he raised his own children. … And while some of the of the intra-family chats can seem self indulgent or repetitive, there is real poignancy in hearing Amy … talk about the years she waited tables while her brother was becoming famousl.”

Variety’s Owen Gleiberman calls the film “unexpectedly moving” after ‘fessing up to an initial reaction that was more mixed. “Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost is a movie that takes what it’s about and holds it up to the light with such unabashed reverence that after half an hour or so, I thought it was all going to be a bit much,” he writes. “Actually, it turns out to be a very good film… but it’s layered with a thick and sugary frosting of adoration.”

“It’s hardly a surprise that Stiller & Meara treats the two of them like gods on the comedy Olympus,” Gleiberman continues. “The film was directed by Ben Stiller … so yes, he’s a bit close to the subject. What he’s put together has to be reckoned a definitive look at the career of Stiller and Meara. At the same time, the documentary is a tender but clear-eyed family portrait.”

Over at The Hollywood Reporter, Daniel Feinberg characterizes Nothing Is Lost as a mash-up of “biography, autobiography and Apple-supported family therapy.” But he also makes it clear that the finished product isn’t the nightmare that description suggests.

“I think there’s a perfectly fair reading of Nothing Is Lost, especially from fans of Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, that the couple deserved an exploratory showcase that isn’t 50 percent about their son’s own neuroses,” he observes. “But ultimately I think there’s sadness and humor to Ben Stiller’s approach, which blends tonal traces of previous collaborators Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach.”

Writing at RogerEbert.com, Jourdain Searles awards the film three stars, praising Stiller’s “empathy” for his parents. “In recent years, the term ‘nepo baby’ has gained significant attention, referring to a famous person in entertainment who also happens to have famous parents,” Searles writes. “Stiller’s film fully embraces both the good and bad implications of the term, despite never once using it on camera….As we learn more about three generations of Stillers, the film takes the shape of a family therapy session that just happens to be lovingly crafted into a feature documentary.”

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