I Like Me (3 stars out of 4)
Few actors in the 1980s felt more larger than life than John Candy, who parlayed early stardom in the Canadian sketch show SCTV into a host of leading and supporting comic roles in films throughout the decade.
“I Like Me” shares Candy’s story a little over thirty years after his unexpected passing in 1994, drawing on interviews with friends, family, and his entertainment peers. The result is a thoughtful and honest portrait of a man who seemed to embody his public persona, but carried a lot more depth than his jovial personality might have implied.
The documentary moves chronologically, tracing his childhood in Canada playing sports until a knee injury helped push him into a passion for performance. Early on we learn that Candy’s father passed when his son was only five years old, and that this absence shaped much of his perspective on life and the world around him.
Longtime fans will recognize the eventual breakthrough at SCTV, performing alongside other rising stars like Catherine O’Hara, Martin Short, and Eugene Levy (who are all interviewed for the film). Co-stars like Tom Hanks, Dan Aykroyd and Steve Martin comment on his eventual film roles like “Splash,” “Uncle Buck,” and “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.” As a career highlight reel, “I Like Me” does a solid job of capturing what made Candy so beloved to so many, and such a success during a unique stretch of movie history.
The rise-to-fame beats are pretty familiar, and though many of his peers leaned harder into their demons, Candy also fought against substance abuse. But the more insightful passages explore his effort to reconcile the way Hollywood insisted on defining him by his weight and appearance. In archival interviews, Candy betrays a depth and pain behind his big brown eyes and broad smile.
We also get meaningful insights into his role as a husband and father, though interviews with his wife Rose and his two children. Clips with his son Chris are especially poignant, understanding that he wound up walking such a similar path to his own father.
As a documentary, “I Like Me” isn’t breaking any new ground, or telling its story in a unique or inventive way. But as a portrait of its subject, Colin Hanks’s film does a good job of capturing a complex human being in a fair and affectionate way, and that might fulfill its #1 priority.
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“I Like Me” is rated PG-13 for some profanity and suggestive material.