Mel Brooks has a great sense of comic pacing and rhythm in his best movies. He knows when to get in and get out. “Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!” (HBO Max) is a nearly four-hour documentary, so presumably it doesn’t boast the same skill. But it does: Brooks and his career are so enjoyable to learn about that, if anything, it’s too short.
Having not seen previous Brooks documentaries or interviews, this one – with Judd Apatow doing the fresh interview with Brooks – is perfect for me. Those steeped in his work will have seen the old clips. And we’ve all seen the movie clips, but I can’t say they get old.
Four hours might seem to suggest twists and turns, but not particularly. We absorb a great life well-lived, and learn why. Brooks’ marriage to Anne Bancroft is touching, with Bancroft lighting up in almost every interview when asked about her husband. She’s an actress, but I don’t think she’s acting. (We probably aren’t meant to take this as courtship advice: Brooks landed Bancroft by relentlessly following her around.)
“Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!” (2026)
Two-episode documentary, HBO Max
Directors: Judd Apatow, Michael Bonfiglio
Brooks’ friendship with Carl Reiner is equally sweet, and I appreciate that we’re given a big chunk of their bit “The 2,000 Year Old Man.” The docu functions as a sober reflection on the losses that hit someone who lives for a century, but also the cherished memories.
A life that doesn’t stink
Always “on” but not to the point of annoyance or to the feeling that he is psychologically harmed by this, Brooks is delightful and insightful in the new and old interview clips. He also does a bit of transitional narration himself; this is a biased docu, but that’s OK. I laugh every time he talks about how great he is. Somehow it’s clear this is humor rather than arrogance, even though his New York accent is in the same ballpark as that of Donald Trump, who often says the same things but with a different impact.
“The 99 Year Old Man!” is a straightforward chronological biography. His feeling of smallness during the time Bancroft financially supported him, just before his Hollywood breakthrough in “The Producers” (1967), is an of-his-generation insight. Another lamentation: He didn’t get to direct after 1995’s “Dracula: Dead and Loving It” — young studio bosses thought he had become unbankable – and he never got to helm a fully dramatic film.
Those points have silver linings. He produced several dramatic films, and the docu argues we might not have been treated to the catalogs of David Lynch and David Cronenberg without Brooks producing “The Elephant Man” and “The Fly” in the 1980s. Though he hasn’t directed in 30 years, he did produce, ironically, the stage musical version of “The Producers” in the 2000s.
“The 99 Year Old Man!” spends more time on the hits than the misses, except the eventual cult classic “The History of the World: Part I” (1981) is plucked out to illustrate critical dislike based on the “offensiveness” of things like “The Inquisition” musical number. This leaves out that some people dislike the film because it lacks the comedic rhythms of his others.
His 11-film body of directorial work is celebrated both by comedians (Adam Sandler and Conan O’Brien are among the interviewees) and movie fans, but oddly, the work itself is underplayed. The takeaways of “The 99 Year Old Man!” are Brooks’ friendships and his belief in kindness to craft a life that doesn’t stink. It’s hard to argue against that, even if I must go elsewhere for a deep dive into “Life Stinks.”