STEVE! (martin) a documentary in 2 pieces (2024)

Morgan Neville's Apple TV+ documentary comes in two parts that work as a matched pair. Then covers Steve Martin's rise up to the moment he quit stand-up in 1980, told through archive with no talking heads on screen; Now follows the 70-something Martin at home and at work, doing most of the talking himself. The first half is a precise study of how he built an anti-comedy act from props, banjo and studied absurdity until it filled arenas. The second is gentler and surprisingly moving about what he chose instead.