John Candy: I Like Me

4 outta 5

John Candy: I Like Me, the documentary about the Canadian film and TV legend is an in-depth and often heart-wrenching look into the life of John Candy, who left this world far too soon. The story of a big guy who hid a lot of personal demons behind a smile and a quip, his talent in various roles, some silly, some profound, always shone through. He was also an incredibly decent person that was well liked by everyone he encountered. Which makes bits of disrespect flung his way during interviews all more frustrating to see. This was a man who loved his art, loved his family and loved his country. He even loved the CFL team he briefly co-owned, the Toronto Argonauts. Well, nobody’s perfect. But John Candy came close.

The film starts off with a rather moving tribute speech to John by his fellow SCTV player, Dan Akyrod. The narrative then recounts John’s childhood which was marred by tragedy and losing his father when he was just a child. This has a profound effect upon him because his father died of heart failure when he was in his 30s and John has the spectre of his father’s early death hanging over him. The movie accurately conveys the inexorable march of time; probably the most pronounced moment is during an interview with Macaulay Culkin, who appeared with Candy in Uncle Buck and Home Alone, he says that he is currently 44 years old, one year older than Candy ever got. In another bittersweet moment, he says that as a kid actor, he thought that it would have been fun to meet Candy again when he was a teenager, something that never happened.

During his high school years, John gravitated towards performing and he ended up in the Second City comedy group. He isn’t very good at improvisation, which leads him to teaming up with another actor who wasn’t great at improv, Bill Murray. Murray says that to be good, they had to learn to be awful together and there was no way to go but up. During an interview, Murray says it’s hard to make a documentary about John because there’s no dirty secrets there. The closest he can get to John being unprofessional was once during a film he was riffing so much it may have ticked off director Sidney Poitier. That’s it.

Candy was always a gregarious guy. He would be buying meals even if he didn’t have the cash and he had a personal in-joke character with his friends named Johnny Toronto. There is an interesting observation by Dave Thomas that, years later, when Candy as co-owner of the Argos won the Grey Cup, he’s the hit of the town, with audiences cheering, everyone getting everything for him, and being celebrated as a champion. Johnny Toronto became real. Candy had been a football fan since playing in high school and he even had an affinity for the linebackers as that was the position he played. But he ran himself ragged with the Argos, flying across the country, doing promotions, giving his all of himself. Something that Candy always did, but it takes a toll. As his son says, if one spends their life drinking and eating their feelings away, and smoking away his nervousness, it takes a toll.

Candy seems like a victim of untreated depression and in the ‘80s and ‘90s therapy wasn’t normalized. In one of the movie’s more infuriating moments, interviewers blatantly ask Candy about his weight, and what if he was skinny. He goes along with the questions gamely, because that’s the kind of guy he was, but it is clearly very insensitive. There is even a moment where he confides in his wife that he can’t lose any weight because then Hollywood wouldn’t want him anymore.

I Like Me, directed by Colin Hanks and produced by Ryan Reynolds, isn’t all just a sad flashback about John’s life. There are lots of fun behind the scenes tidbits about his prolific career. Numerous famous actors and writers all have glowing things to say about him. The director of Spaceballs, Mel Brooks, mentions that one day John sat in his director’s chair to see how it felt, and John says it felt like every other chair. Steve Martin talks about them working together on Planes, Trains and Automobiles, and Martin says he had the easier part, he just had to look annoyed while Candy does the heavy lifting. Culkin mentions how his dad was a horrible person, but John Candy was always asking Culkin if he was okay, looking out for the kid.

He took a lot of different roles and at one point an interviewer mentions that he’s been in a lot of “turkeys” as Candy plays it off mock wounded. Candy was growing into a very versatile performer, his small, not comedic part in JFK is positively riveting (which gets only a scant few seconds in this film), and then it all went away. There is footage from John’s funeral service where Cathreine O’Hara delivers an emotional eulogy and the highway was even shut down for his funeral procession, an honour usually only reserved for Presidents and Popes.

Candy was a huge talent and John Candy: I Like Me shows his euphoric highs and dark lows. But his love for others and his craft shines through. It’s a tragedy he never got to do more.