Josh Reviews John Candy: I Like Me
John Candy: I Like Me is a wonderful and heartfelt look back at the heart and career of the great John Candy, who left this world far too soon at the young age of 43.
The documentary was directed by Colin Hanks, who is not only a talented actor (Band of Brothers, King Kong, Mad Men, Fargo), he also directed the terrific 2015 documentary All Things Must Pass: The Rise and Fall of Tower Records. (Having spent years of my life shopping at the Boston Tower Records on Mass Ave., I might have been pre-disposed to love that doc, but I stand by my assessment that it’s a terrific film!)
I was excited that Mr. Hanks would be returning with a new documentary this past year, and even more excited that it would shine a well-deserved spotlight on John Candy. (I dig the title, which of course was drawn from a line in Planes, Trains and Automobiles!)
I first fell in love with Mr. Candy as Barf in Spaceballs, which I saw in the theater. The one-two punch of Spaceballs and Planes, Trains and Automobiles in 1987 made me a forever fan of Mr. Candy’s. Over the years I discovered and fell in love with his work in so many other movies: Uncle Buck, Home Alone, National Lampoon’s Vacation, The Blues Brothers, Stripes, Little Shop of Horrors… Mr. Candy was comedy gold in so many great movies.
Mr Candy was also, unfortunately, one of my first examples, as a young burgeoning movie fan, of someone I loved getting overexposed and winding up in movies that felt a far cry from his great older work. Even as a kid, despite my love for John Candy, I remember seeing the release of many of his later films (Wagons East, Canadian Bacon, etc.) and just not being at all interested in them.
Mr. Hanks’ documentary does a lovely job exploring who John Candy was. We get to hear from a deep bench of friends and colleagues (so many of whom became huge stars) wax poetic about their friend John Candy, people like Steve Martin, Macaulay Culkin (who talks so powerfully about how Mr. Candy looked after him as a child actor), Chris Columbus, Martin Short, Dan Aykroyd, Catherine O’Hara, Eugene Levy, Dave Hall, Andrea Martin, Conan O’Brien, and even Colin Hanks’ father Tom Hanks. It’s clear they all loved him. Bill Murray comments: “I wish I had more bad things to say about him.”
We also get to hear from Mr. Candy’s wife Rosemary, and their two now-grown kids, who shed a little light on who Mr. Candy was beneath his on-screen persona.
The documentary is filled with wonderful footage from throughout Mr. Candy’s career. We get to see lots of funny clips from Mr. Candy’s famous TV and movie roles, but also lots of TV interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, and lovely home movies,
The documentary has a cheery glow to it, but of course the whole thing is colored by the knowledge of Mr. Candy’s tragic early death. The film opens with portions of Dan Aykroyd’s speech at Mr. Candy’s funeral, and closes with Catherine O’Hara’s. (Sadly, Ms. O’Hara herself passed away just recently before I wrote this review.) And throughout the documentary, Mr. Hanks uses the device of a countdown clock that winds the years backwards from Mr. Candy’s death in 1994. (It’s a clever but somewhat morbid approach to constantly reminding the viewer that Mr. Candy’s time was limited.)
I enjoyed this documentary, though I can’t help but feeling like it felt somewhat superficial in the end. We get a few fascinating moments that explore some of Mr. Candy’s dark side and destructive habits. We get to hear Mr. Candy occasionally open up about how hurtful it was to be judged by his weight and to have his weight so often discussed and brought up by interviewers. I wish the film had dug a little more deeply into those areas; it might have made the film feel a little more substantive. But what did I want, a lot of dishy gossipy dirt? It sounds like John Candy was a pretty great fellow, though of course he had flaws, as all people do. Certainly he was an incredible comedic talent whose work over his long (but still far too-short) life and career made a powerful impact that is still being felt now, decades after his death. So perhaps this criticism is unfair, though I must confess the details of this documentary haven’t quite stuck with me the way great docs often do, even though I only watched it a few weeks ago.
That aside, I still think John Candy: I Like Me is a terrific film. I’m glad to have seen it. There’s no question that John Candy was well-deserving of this spotlight. His movies and his characters are a huge part of my life. I’m glad that Colin Hanks made this film, and if you’re a comedy fan and haven’t seen it, you should definitely give it a watch. You can watch it right now on Amazon Prime Video.
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