John Candy: I Like Me is putting the late comedy actor back in the news as readers check out the documentary on his life using their Amazon Prime subscriptions. The movie highlights the personal life of Candy, and the triumphs and struggles he endured on his way to becoming a household name. It also features a plethora of interviews with those who knew him, all of whom talk about the reality between John Candy and the roles he played.
I had a chance to speak to Candy’s children, Jennifer and Christopher, ahead of the documentary’s release, and asked about which of his iconic roles reminded them the most of who he was in real life. Not surprisingly, I learned from Jennifer that he wasn’t like “Uncle Buck,” but did more resemble a character in another of his memorable movies:
For me, it’s always Summer Rental. His character as a dad there is, is very frustrated, overworked, overtired, loving dad. That scene in the morning where he’s rushing out late for work, trying to crack a hard-boiled egg and cracks the egg on the dash and it just cracks everywhere, and he goes, ‘My bad. I should have explained to them that I needed them hard-boiled.’That encompasses parenthood so well and just, just like for him, for me, that reminds me so much of our dad that in throughout that whole movie.
Jennifer Candy-Sullivan said readers should look no further than Summer Rental‘s Jack Chester to see the type of father he was when he wasn’t in front of a camera. I didn’t find that surprising based on past interviews from actors like Macaulay Culkin, who spoke of John Candy’s kindness on set.
Christopher Candy made it clear that while the fatherly side of John Candy was on display in his movies, so were the other qualities. As Steve Martin confirmed when talking about their experience on Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, Candy was a funny person without a script. Christopher Candy pointed to Great Outdoors as another example of his father’s most outstanding qualities, whilst pointing out how he was different in real life:
I’ve talked about it a bit, but seeing him in Great Outdoors and how he was wrangling everybody together, he definitely did that. He was always championing to get people together and big parties, and wanting to make sure it was a fun time for everybody. You see all of that, but he’s also someone who knew how to turn that off and just be with us or be focused, and he was able to do that. So it wasn’t like he was bringing Uncle Buck home.
John Candy: I Like Me hits on all of the things his children mentioned, and then some. It also touches on the more tragic bits of the actor’s life, such as developing chronic anxiety out of a need to remain active in Hollywood. Overall, it feels like the documentary paints a complete picture of his life from beginning to end, whilst loading it with tons of celebrity stories along the way.
These stories include anecdotes from celebrities who knew John Candy quite well, like Bill Murray and Catherine O’Hara, to people like Conan O’Brien who had chance encounters with him on their way to stardom. Those are just a few of the major names that speak in this documentary, which really peels back the curtain on who Candy was.
John Candy: I Like Me shines as a highlight of the year when it comes to biographical documentaries, and while there are still upcoming 2025 movies to see before the year is up, I think it’ll be one of the top documentaries of the year to recommend.
Stream John Candy: I Like Me on Prime Video, and be sure to check out the other movies from the actor on the service as well. I recently watched Uncle Buck, and while it may not be representative of who the actor was as a person, I still think it’s hilarious.