Ben Stiller has his father’s eyes and his mother’s smile. This is the kind of observation that his documentary Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost allows you to make for yourself, amidst its story of a comedian caught in his parents’ shadow, and trying not to repeat their mistakes as he balances showbiz with raising a family. On paper, that’s an enormous thematic goal, and it’s one that Ben Stiller clearly feels deeply about (he’s one of the movie’s mere handful of interview subjects). However, your own conclusions will likely be all you have by the time the credits roll, given the movie’s impatient, rapid-fire unspooling, resulting in a work that feels hesitant to commit to its own emotional ideas.
It’s an archival documentary first and foremost, pulling from not only televised appearances by Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara — the famous comic duo known as Stiller & Meara — but letters, audio recordings, and countless home movies through which they documented their lives. Ben Stiller and his sister Amy begin uncovering these mementos while clearing out their family’s New York apartment on the Upper West Side. They pore over this treasure trove of memories in the wake of their parents’ deaths, whose letters take the form of gilded handwriting appearing across photographs on screen. This posthumous framing device comes loaded with dramatic potential, given how organizing the past might force both siblings to confront aspects of their family history they might not have known, or may not have been willing to accept.
However, what’s known or unknown to Ben Stiller during this grieving process remains a mystery to the audience. Although the movie takes a trip back in time, tracing the duo’s lives in more-or-less chronological order, it lacks causality and a sense of discovery. In the process, its frequent scenes of the filmmaker and his sister rummaging through old boxes are rendered a mere obligatory flourish. Those unfamiliar with Stiller & Meara’s work on the Ed Sullivan Show are in for a treat — the doc lingers on their domestic sketch comedy just long enough to be entertaining — but it features very little by way of detailed insight into their personal dynamic, despite emanating from an intimate place. For instance, a brief foray into Meara’s alcoholism remains just that: a detour touched upon in obligatory fashion, given how quickly it disappears from view.
To put the spotlight on one’s own shortcomings, and those of one’s parents, is an act of artistic vulnerability, but Ben Stiller doesn’t dig deep enough into the critiques (and self-critiques) he gestures towards, especially in the presence of his own children. There are times Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost seems to embody unspoken tensions from Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara’s relationship, but whether or not this is intentional, it’s rarely to the movie’s benefit. The director hints, through interviews and archival footage, that Jerry’s most thoughtful moments being interrupted by Anne, as part of their act, may not have been such a major departure from reality, and it’s hard not to see this dynamic take shape in the pull-and-push between the movie’s wealth of images and its calculated editing.
Anytime the documentary approaches intimacy or insight, it usually cuts away and moves on to the next thing with clockwork precision, rarely finishing its thought. These interruptions would be a remarkable callback to the duo’s marriage if they didn’t also sap the story of saccharine and reflective moments. You could practically set your watch to the maximum of four seconds most shots seem to last. There are exceptions here and there, though they’re only noticeable because they feel like a necessary respite from an indiscriminate barrage of memories, cut robotically to make the whole thing seem like a trailer for something much more interesting.
Since nearly every scene feels like a climactic montage, the movie ends up robbed of anything resembling catharsis, when its very existence ought to feel like the product of an artist opening up their veins and capturing what pours out. Despite its occasional focus on process, with clues as to how the couple wrote their jokes, there’s no emotional Rubicon for the director to cross. There’s rarely any sense of revelation to his interviews, let alone a scrutiny of what his camera and his cuts come to embody.
Like any film in which a celebrity turns the camera lens into a mirror, Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost runs the risk of veering into “vanity project” territory, but to call it one would be inaccurate. It’s born of Ben Stiller’s genuine attempts to scrutinize his own ego and his decisions as a parent, while peering back at a past now out of reach. It’s nothing if not sincere in its intentions. However, whether or not the director’s introspective journey was successful in his real life, this isn’t something he’s able to adequately express in his documentary tribute — which, unfortunately, feels like it could have been made by anybody else.
Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost will be released on Apple TV+ on October 17, 2025.
Siddhant Adlakha (@SiddhantAdlakha) is a New York-based film critic and video essay writer originally from Mumbai. He is a member of the New York Film Critics Circle, and his work has appeared in the New York Times, Variety. the Guardian, and New York Magazine.