John Candy: I Like Me (review here), the title of Colin Hanks’ new documentary on Prime Video, is taken from a scene in the beloved actor’s Planes, Trains and Automobiles. In it, his character, good-hearted but annoying salesman Del Griffith, refutes Steve Martin’s uptight Neal by admitting that he knows he’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but dammit, he likes himself anyway.
It’s interesting because one of the things that comes across very early in John Candy: I Like Me is that everyone really did like John Candy. And that poses a challenge for a filmmaker looking to make a compelling documentary. Sure, you can have all of Candy’s friends, such as Eugene Levy, Dave Thomas, Dan Aykroyd, Martin Short, Macaulay Culkin, Catherine O’Hara, Andrea Martin, and Steve Martin, telling stories about how great he was. But what else is there?
Hanks instead framed the movie around Candy’s many fears, anxieties, and feelings of inadequacy. He also worried about his own mortality, a fear that only grew when he became a parent. The result is a funny and heartbreaking look at John Candy the comedian, the actor, the man, and the father.
I was fortunate to speak with Colin Hanks, along with John Candy’s children Chris Candy and Jennifer Candy-Sullivan about the making of John Candy: I Like Me. We talked about how the project came to be with the help of Ryan Reynolds, and the family’s reaction when they first learned of it.
John Candy: I Like Me is streaming on Prime Video now.
