‘John Candy: I Like Me’ Lifts the Lid on the Comedy Legend’s Anxiety
Don’t go into John Candy: I Like Me expecting any dirt on the comedian. His fellow Second City cast member Bill Murray jokes in the documentary’s first few minutes that he wishes he had something negative to say in order to make the movie more interesting (the best he can do is an anecdote about Candy “milking” a scene during a play).
But that doesn’t mean that the doc, which just premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, doesn’t explore the darker aspects of the beloved comedy star’s life.
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Most of I Like Me is a fairly standard biographical documentary, telling Candy’s story through talking head interviews, home movies and clips from his classic movies, such as Splash, Spaceballs and Planes, Trains and Automobiles, the latter, of course, being the source of the movie’s subtitle.
This is probably the right approach, even though the movie clearly isn’t breaking any new ground stylistically. Director Colin Hanks opts to let Candy’s friends and family guide the story, and wisely stays out of their way.
Comedy fans will no doubt be thrilled to hear stories such as how Dan Aykroyd essentially tricked a reluctant Candy into auditioning for the Second City, or how he pretended to be a big-shot named “Johnny Toronto,” or how he spent 23 hours shooting his Home Alone role as a favor to John Hughes. There are countless heartwarming anecdotes from stars like Tom Hanks, Mel Brooks and Macaulay Culkin, who recalled how Candy was the only adult who became concerned for the child actor’s well-being after clocking his “monster” of a father on the set of Uncle Buck.
The familiar trappings of the streaming doc don’t necessarily make for the most nuanced chronicle of Candy’s career. We get to hear about the making of some of his great comedies, but the movie’s arc, which suggests that Candy had a creative downturn in the early ‘90s, leaves no room for even a mention of Disney’s bobsled blockbuster Cool Runnings. And the Saturday morning cartoon series, Camp Candy, which featured the voice of Candy’s son, Chris, and was adored by many kids at the time, gets a brief, unflattering nod during a montage about showbiz excess.
But John Candy: I Like Me is surprisingly insightful on the subject of mental health. The movie lifts the lid on the real cause of Candy’s death: anxiety. While he technically died from heart failure, Candy’s declining health was seemingly the result of his efforts to self-medicate anxiety, with vices such as smoking and alcohol. Candy’s father died of a heart attack at the age of 35, when the actor was just 5. In addition to the obvious childhood trauma, this gave him a feeling of living on “borrowed time” when he hit middle age.
The fact that Candy treated this anxiety with habits that actually contributed to his untimely death says a lot about how anxiety is so often a nonsensical feedback loop that ends up causing the very problem it’s supposedly protecting us from.
The movie’s most innovative formal conceit is one that immediately keys the audience into Candy’s deep-seated fears; every time a year appears on screen, it counts down from 1994, the year of his death, giving even the most whimsical reminiscences a feeling of unspoken dread.
And there’s no “dirt” on Candy, because, if anything, his kindness was a liability in show business. There are many stories about Candy’s generosity and attentiveness, but as Conan O’Brien mentions, having briefly hung out Candy during his Harvard days, Hollywood is “very unhealthy for people pleasers” — meaning that, no matter how much Candy gave, it was never enough. This seemingly led to Candy overextending himself, becoming riddled with insecurity and pressure. And putting up with more than a decade of weight-shaming questions from hack entertainment reporters certainly didn’t help.
John Candy: I Like Me certainly doesn’t reinvent the comedy documentary wheel, but no one was really expecting it to. And it may actually best Up when it comes to making people cry just minutes into the movie.
