<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the problem when you talk about John: People don\u2019t really have a lot of negative things to say about him,\u201d Bill Murray says in the opening scene of \u201cJohn Candy: I Like Me,\u201d the new documentary about the late actor and comedian. \u201cAnd I hope what you\u2019re producing here turns up some people who\u2019ve got some dirt on him.\u201d<\/p>\n
The tongue-in-cheek remark from Murray could prime viewers to expect that the filmmakers will, indeed, dig up the seedier parts of the man who was so beloved on-screen. But the next 113 minutes instead give a heartfelt window into the life of a charismatic performer who dazzled during his too-short time here, a tender depiction that pulls at your heart more than leaves you laughing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI Like Me,\u201d available on Prime Video, is a family-sanctioned documentary, with Candy\u2019s two adult children, Chris and Jennifer, along with his widow, Rosemary, serving as co-executive producers, sitting for interviews, and providing filmmakers with intimate family home videos and a trove of photos from Candy\u2019s younger years. Candy fan Ryan Reynolds produced the documentary, and it was capably left in the hands of director Colin Hanks, whose most recent documentary was the well-received \u201cEagles of Death Metal: Nos Amis\u201d (2017). He also as a child knew Candy, and Hanks\u2019s warmth for his subject seeps into the film. (Hanks\u2019s father, Tom Hanks, starred in Candy\u2019s breakout film, the Ron Howard-directed \u201cSplash,\u201d and also appears in the documentary.)<\/p>\n
Candy is best known for a string of unforgettable roles he played in movies from the 1980s into the early 1990s, with \u201cUncle Buck,\u201d \u201cNational Lampoon\u2019s Vacation\u201d and \u201cStripes\u201d among them. But from the documentary\u2019s opening scenes at his 1994 funeral \u2014 he died at age 43 of a heart attack \u2014 to the end, you are never allowed to forget that Candy wasn\u2019t just beloved by his fellow Canadians and comedy nerds worldwide. He was a husband. He was a father.<\/p>\n
And, maybe more than that, he was a child who lost his father around his 5th birthday to a massive heart attack. No one in his family spoke of the tragic event, and it turned him into the kid who made everyone happy. He then grew into an adult who, as one friend put it in the documentary, lived knowing he was on borrowed time.<\/p>\n
For fans of Candy, the documentary will be, excuse the pun, like candy. You\u2019re treated to footage from his early days in Toronto\u2019s theater and improv scene and, though it takes awhile to get there, clips from his many on-screen performances. \u201cHome Alone\u201d outtakes alongside his former \u201cSCTV\u201d colleague Catherine O\u2019Hara are a highlight. A murderers\u2019 row of comedic giants \u2014 Martin Short, Dan Aykroyd, Mel Brooks and more \u2014 get misty-eyed recalling how beautiful it was to see Candy in his element, as he delivered effortless, tender performances. They also explain the connective tissue between his outlandish characters from his early days and his big-screen roles.<\/p>\n
\u201cI Like Me\u201d serves as a worthy primer for Candy novices as well. The documentary\u2019s title borrows from a pivotal scene in \u201cPlanes, Trains and Automobiles,\u201d when Steve Martin\u2019s character rips into Candy\u2019s Del Griffith. The camera lingers on Candy\u2019s face as he processes the litany of insults that would devastate any feeling person. Then his resolve finds him. \u201cI like me,\u201d Candy replies.<\/p>\n
Martin dissects the scene. \u201cHis facial response told a huge story,\u201d recalls Martin, as he had to remind himself on set that this was just pretend because Candy \u201cacted so hurt.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
The moment stunned.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not a comedian,\u201d remarks \u201cHome Alone\u201d director Christopher Columbus. \u201cThis is a guy who is much more complex than what a lot of people would think.\u201d<\/p>\n
We also learn that Candy had struggles with anxiety and doubt. He had flaws, though they\u2019re presented as brief mentions of living above his means and a tendency to hold a grudge. And sometimes those who knew him give contradictory takes, including how seriously Candy took his personal health, given what happened to his father.<\/p>\n
Unlike in other recent comedic documentary projects, like \u201cPee-wee as Himself\u201d or even the Marc Maron film \u201cAre We Good?,\u201d we don\u2019t get the benefit of hearing the subject explain himself under the care of a documentarian who wants to go deep. Instead, what we hear of Candy here is through archival television interviews, which reveal less about him than about the cultural era of the time.<\/p>\n
He dealt, gracefully, with incessant and rude questions about his weight. His wife Rosemary concludes he was trapped by this image, even during times he actively worked to change. \u201cThe industry wanted him big,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
As to the central question posed by Murray: not much dirt, no. The documentary is full of anecdotes of how Candy treated regular, working folks decently and without fanfare. He\u2019s the guy who would stop to sign all the autographs, who was constantly saying yes and doing favors for others. In one scene, Macaulay Culkin explains how Candy treated him, as a child, with a level of care and respect he got from few other adults.<\/p>\n
Except for a short tag with few examples, we don\u2019t get the full picture of Candy\u2019s enduring influence on comedy. Instead, we see how his goodness impacted those who loved him, which did include comedy\u2019s greats. You\u2019re astonished to see how fully actualized Candy was as a performer in his short time, but you\u2019re also left with the heartbreak of all that was left unrealized by his untimely passing.<\/p>\n
So, yeah, never meet your heroes? \u201cI Like Me\u201d will leave you feeling: Man, this was a hero worth meeting.<\/p>\n
PG-13. <\/b>Available on Prime Video. Contains smoking, some strong language, drug material and suggestive material. 113 minutes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cThat\u2019s the problem when you talk about John: People don\u2019t really have a lot of negative things to say about him,\u201d Bill Murray says in the opening scene of \u201cJohn Candy: I Like Me,\u201d the new documentary about the late actor and comedian. \u201cAnd I hope what you\u2019re producing here turns up some people who\u2019ve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2029532,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[345616,345385,343479,344318],"class_list":["post-2081442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-bill-murray","tag-colin-hanks","tag-john-candy","tag-the-documentary"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/In-Black-Rabbit-Jason-Bateman-and-Jude-Law-are-brothers.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2081442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2081442"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2081442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2081443,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2081442\/revisions\/2081443"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2029532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2081442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2081442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2081442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}