Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Who is Martin Mull?’ on Netflix, a Documentary Profile of a Gifted Comedy Star Whose True Calling Was Being a Painter

Biographical documentary Who is Martin Mull? (now on Netflix) is destined for a sad ending: its subject passed away in 2024, and its director, funnyman Bob Saget, died in 2022 before he could finish the project (which fell to co-director Neil Berkeley). This deep dive into Mull’s life and career — among a clutch of comedy-centric docs debuting on Netflix this month, including profiles of Norm MacDonald and Maria Bamford — shows us that he wasn’t just a comedian and TV/movie star, but also an accomplished painter, which he considered to be his true calling. And the film retains its present-tense title despite its past-tense subject, suggesting that Mull’s work will definitely outlive him.

WHO IS MARTIN MULL?: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

The Gist: Right off the bat, Mull offers an answer to the title: “Who gives a shit?” It’s a typical quip from a man who made countless people laugh as a touring musical comedian in the 1970s and a TV perennial for decades after that. But that’s not how he saw himself. In archival clips he repeatedly says showbiz was the “day job” that earned him a living so he could go home and be a struggling artist. He calls himself a “jerk of all trades” who didn’t excel in one avenue but could do “a number of different things and get passing grades.” 

Most Boomers and Gen Xers know Mull as a scene-stealer who appeared on game show Hollywood Squares and enjoyed recurring parts on TV series like Roseanne, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and Arrested Development. He shifted from being a star of the comedy circuit — notably preceding his superstar pal Steve Martin’s arena-packing success — to TV with the mock-cable access “talk show” Fernwood 2 Night, and eventually guest-hosted The Tonight Show 30 times. 

Saget began filming the doc in 2018, roping in family members and a handful of luminaries to provide commentary and context for Mull’s life, from growing up in smalltown Ohio with a cruel and abusive father to attaining a master’s degree in painting and getting his start in showbiz as a songwriter. Mull’s wife, Wendy Haas, and daughter Maggie Mull contribute, as do Martin, Penn Jillette, Tom Waits, Fred Willard, and Norman Lear. And filming took long enough for the documentary to become a meditation on mortality.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of? Steve! (Martin): A Documentary in 2 Pieces, Albert Brooks: Defending My Life and John Candy: I Like Me are similarly insightful profiles of comics from Martin’s generation.  

Our Take: Mull is as much a warm tribute to the man as it is a thoughtful psychological profile of what drives an artist to create art. Mull is reluctant to detail his relationship with his father, although his siblings share that the patriarch was physically abusive. Not to Martin, though — he was the object of his father’s indifference, and others speculate that Martin sought attention as a comedian for that reason. But his desire to be a painter above all else becomes clear the more the doc examines the themes he explored in his work, which are perhaps best described as bleak, surreal riffs on Norman Rockwell-style portraits of mid-century American suburban life.

It’s clear that Mull’s work as a comedian and actor, brilliant as it could be, wasn’t addressing what was in his head and heart, and painting was a function of processing his upbringing. (Although you could argue that his satirical mockumentary TV series A History of White People in America wouldn’t have been made by someone who wasn’t disillusioned by middle-American societal tropes.) That peek into Mull’s psychological profile, and intimate moments he shares with Martin, Saget, and others, make the doc more than just a series of talking heads praising its subject, and the melancholy reflections in its final moments will resonate with viewers. Instead of presenting a scrubbed and varnished biography, Who is Martin Mull? asks a pertinent question, and dutifully answers it. 

Our Call: We definitely know and understand Mull better from this excellent bio. STREAM IT.

John Serba is a freelance film critic from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Werner Herzog hugged him once.