When John Candy passed away in 1994, at the young age of 43, I was just 17 years old and probably never appreciated him as I should’ve. Sure, he was hilarious in a bunch of movies I loved growing up, such as Uncle Buck, Vacation, and of course Planes, Trains and Automobiles. But that was about as much as I thought about him. And certainly, I had no idea what an icon he was here in Canada, where the lovely new doc John Candy: I Like Me premiered to a packed crowd of fans laughing and sobbing in equal measure.
John Candy: I Like Me was produced by Ryan Reynolds and directed by Colin Hanks, the latter the son of Tom Hanks who starred with Candy in Splash. The film is pretty much what you’d expect and want it to be. It begins with Bill Murray, Candy’s co-star in Stripes and a fellow Second City alum, trying to come up with something bad to say about the guy, and landing on something lame. Many of his contemporaries pop up to talk about what a great human being and larger-than-life personality Candy was, including Eugene Levy, Dave Thomas, Dan Aykroyd, Martin Short, Catherine O’Hara, Andrea Martin, Steve Martin, and more. Conan O’Brien has a fantastic and telling anecdote about the day Candy spent at National Lampoon, making everyone laugh and imparting wisdom that shaped the future talk show host’s career.
There was a lot more to Candy than just jokes and broad comedic characters. He was plagued with the fear of death. Not just that he’d die at an early age as his father had done, but that the people around him would be taken away. This drove a lot of his insecurities, which were made worse by people taking advantage of him. Because of his size and personality, people had no problem insulting Candy to his face about his weight. This includes reporters and TV hosts, some of whom have no idea how much they are hurting him when they ask what it’s like to be the funny fat guy. Hollywood expectations didn’t help, either, as Candy recounts a time when he was actually getting into shape and an agent told him to stop. Drinking, partying, and exhaustion only made matters worse.
As somber and melancholic as the film can be, it’s mainly just a loving tribute to John Candy and leaves you wanting to go back and revisit some of his best work. I was reminded of the laugh-out-loud, drop-dead-hilarious “Yellowbelly” sketch that he did many years ago. I hadn’t seen it in ages and I nearly fell out of my seat laughing.
There’s also a great bit chronicling his work with John Hughes. As Macaulay Culkin notes, we shouldn’t think of Molly Ringwald or other teen Brat Packers when we think of Hughes. We should think of Candy, who did a whopping nine movies with Hughes, becoming best friends in the process. Candy grew as an actor working with Hughes, becomig as much a dramatic actor as a comedic one. Both men died way too young of the exact same thing.
While it follows a familiar formula for this kind of reverential documentary, John Candy: I Like Me is a must-see for Candy fans, but also for people like me who were too young to fully appreciate his greatness. As it’s streaming on Prime Video on October 10th, there’s no excuse to miss it.
*NOTE: This review was originally part of our TIFF 50 Coverage.
