‘Paralyzed by Hope: The Maria Bamford Story’ Review: Judd Apatow Proves that the Lady Is Dynamite

Standup comedian Maria Bamford has often been described as a comic’s comic: someone beloved by those really in the know. This has long frustrated her fans, who note that, in fact, she’s always been available to anyone looking to find her: through her comedy specials, her voicework and guest spots in TV and film, and her Netflix series “Lady Dynamite,” which was both cultishly adored and unsparingly ignored.

The truth is that Bamford’s work — like that of most cult artists — unapologetically appeals to particular tastes. So in less-experienced hands, her story might have been a midnight movie that played well to just a few admirers. But “Paralyzed by Hope” happens to have been made by fans who know a thing or two about crafting a narrative: Judd Apatow and Neil Berkeley.

The pair arrive unannounced at Bamford’s door with a bag of cash and some fruit, hoping to entice their skeptical subject to open herself up for a full portrait. Once she agrees, she goes all in: baring all the life experiences that are, as Conan O’Brien wryly notes, so painful as to be the envy of other comedians.

Those familiar with her work will know that this is not actually a new approach; Bamford’s mental health has always been central to her comedy, her revelations pushed to raw and deliberately uncomfortable degrees. Or maybe it’s not entirely deliberate; what we learn, most of all, is that the performer is also the person.

She talks openly and easily about her difficult relationship with her family, her lifelong battle with OCD, depression, and anxiety, a severe eating disorder, suicidal ideation, and time spent in mental health facilities. O’Brien compares her to “a lobster whose shell has been removed,” and she herself jokes onstage that “weakness is the brand.”

But the gift of this otherwise conventional documentary is that we learn how false that declaration really is. The title tells us where she really lives: in a liminal space that’s shaped through pain but not controlled by it. Or, alternately, defined by optimism but not always able to access it. Indeed, she seems remarkably at home in her unsettled state, to such a degree that her self-awareness feels downright aspirational.

Apatow has given us documentaries about Mel Brooks, George Carlin, and Gary Shandling; Berkeley has made movies about Dan Harmon and Gilbert Gottfried. They don’t break the mold here, but they certainly know how to pull the elements together. As is traditional, there are all sorts of notables on hand to pay tribute: Stephen Colbert, Zach Galifianakis, Sarah Silverman, and Patton Oswalt are among those who attest to Bamford’s personal charm and professional skill.

There are also copious clips of her as a standup over the last twenty years, which, again, will speak to some and not others (even Oswalt admits he didn’t get her when they first started working together).

But despite all the famous fans, it’s the people we see when she speaks at a mental health convention who provide the most striking insight. None of them seem particularly attuned to trends in comedy, but all of them are openly awed by her humanity. Which is, one suspects, what Apatow and Berkeley really wanted us to discover all along.

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