'Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!' Is a Fitting and Funny Tribute

"One of the cleverest tricks by directors Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio is playing some of Brooks' stories - like a memorable lunch with Cary Grant - across not just his sit-down interviews with them, but over multiple talk show appearances. He's been telling some of these jokes for decades. It doesn't matter. They're still good. That might sound like an odd answer for someone who has so unabashedly lived nearly a century in the public eye."

"Bancroft died in 2005 and Reiner in 2020. Any life that stretches as long as Brooks' takes on an elegiac quality. Appearing in the documentary, before their deaths, are both Rob Reiner and David Lynch (whom Brooks, a believer, got to direct The Elephant Man). But the losses that add up in Brooks' life never outstrip the laughter. You're left wondering if Brooks is one of the funniest people to ever live, or one of the wisest."

""Comedy is lively. Comedy is joy," he says. "And that's what keeps us going. We have to look forward to little happinesses, little joys." 'Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!' begins streaming on HBO Max on Jan. 22, 2026. One person describes Brooks, as a newborn, thinking the delivery doctor smacking him on the rear was applause. In an earlier clip, an interviewer laments Brooks' apparent lack of introspection. He replies that he's merely "a coalescence of vapor.""

Directors Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio stitch together sit-down interviews, archival talk-show appearances and stories to showcase Mel Brooks' laugh-filled career. They juxtapose repeated jokes and anecdotes—like a memorable lunch with Cary Grant—across different appearances, demonstrating the enduring strength of his material. Brooks's nonstop performing career blurs the line between schtick and self. The film includes appearances from Rob Reiner and David Lynch and notes losses such as Anne Bancroft and Reiner. Laughter predominates over elegy, and Brooks emphasizes comedy as joy that sustains life. Streaming begins on HBO Max Jan. 22, 2026.

Read at Kqed