An interview with Bill Murray opens “John Candy: I Like Me,” director Colin Hanks’ formulaic but richly enjoyable documentary about the late, great Canadian comedic actor.
Murray apologizes for having nothing bad to say about the man he shared the screen in the 1981 movie “Stripes” — he thinks it would be more interesting if he did, he says, and eventually manages that maybe Candy overdid it in one of their scenes.
Murray’s a good actor, but barely tries to sell the idea.
What becomes clear watching “I Like Me,” the title taken from a line of dialogue in one of Candy’s best-known films, 1987’s “Planes, Trains and Automobiles,” is that seemingly everyone liked Candy — even if, like the rest of us, he was far from perfect.
Available to stream on Prime Video, the movie world-premiered as the opening-night offering of the 50th Toronto International Film Festival in early September. It premieres in the United States on Oct. 7 in Northeast Ohio as it opens the Chagrin Falls Documentary Film Festival.
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“I Like Me” is stuffed with terrific archival footage sure to prove nostalgic for those who followed Candy back to his days on the sketch show “SCTV,” essentially Canada’s answer to “Saturday Night Live.” You watch as he breaks into movies and even eventually becomes an owner of the professional football team the Toronto Argonauts, helping to reach his dream of becoming his envisioned cooler alter ego, “Johnny Toronto.”
The movie also boasts many more interviews with those who knew and loved him, including family and famous friends. Along with Murray, the latter group includes Canadian comedic actor peers Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Martin Short and Dave Thomas.
Hanks also somehow (cough) managed to get his very well-known father, Tom, who acted opposite Candy in 1984’s “Splash,” to reminisce about first taking note of Candy while watching “SCTV” and of later finding him to be a giving screen partner.
And then there’s Candy’s “Planes” co-star Steve Martin, who didn’t know him well before filming the John Hughes-directed classic and expresses something that comes close to regret for how his character brutally lays into Candy’s in that memorable scene that eventually delivers the “I like me” quip.
“His facial response in that scene told a huge story,” Martin says, adding with an uneasy laugh: “And I’d always feel bad. I’d say, ‘We are just pretending, you know?'”
Following predictable beats, the younger Hanks doesn’t shy away from the fact that Candy was large in more than just personality. Increasingly overweight, he drank and ate too much, possibly in part to deal with the tremendous anxiety he felt.
We spend time early on and deep into the film at his funeral in 1994, after he’d died of a heart attack.
So, yes, “I Like Me” offers the obligatory gut punches, so perhaps have a tissue or three at the ready, but mostly it’s a celebration of a life spent making others laugh.
And fear not, fans of 1987 “Star Wars” spoof “Spaceballs,” the Mel Brooks-directed classic — in which Candy plays the vaguely Chewbacca-like man-dog hybrid Barf — receives its delightful moment in the spotlight.
“He had a wild and weird, beautiful sense of humor — and blessed with a sweet nature and a smile, that ever-loving smile,” Brooks says. “Two generations passed, and … his memory is still as vivid and as lively as ever.”
Rated: PG-13 for smoking, some strong language, drug material and suggestive material.
See it in person: “John Candy” will open the Chagrin Falls Documentary Film Festival on Oct. 7 at the Chagrin Falls Intermediate School Theater, 77 E. Washington St. Learn more at chagrinfilmfest.org.
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