"I Like Me": one-paragraph review

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"I Like Me" is a 2025 documentary about the short life of John Candy. It's directed by Colin Hanks (son of Tom) and co-produced by Hanks, Candy's fellow Canuck Ryan Reynolds (via Reynolds's Maximum Effort production company), and five others. The documentary gives us an overview of Candy's life through old stills, old videos, old outtakes, and present-day interviews with various stars who had had the chance to work with Candy, not to mention relatives, friends, and various associates. Not a single one could say a bad thing about the man (although Bill Murray humorously tried). Especially relevant to me was Candy's family's history with heart disease: his dad, despite being a military vet who wasn't fat, died of a massive heart attack at age 35 when John was only five. John's older brother, much later on, suffered his own heart attack (but survived), and when John died at age 43, he had known for years that he was on borrowed time—a sentiment I can relate to. He also had to deal with rude interviewers who peppered him with incessant questions about his weight. Personally, I found this documentary to be a tender and sympathetic portrait of a comedy great, but at the same time—except for one or two laugh-out-loud moments during the documentary—I generally found Candy to be only blandly funny in a "helpless everyman" sort of way. Among famous "people of size," I'd say that Candy didn't really have the manic energy or cleverness of, say, John Belushi or Jack Black, nor did he possess the wit and acting chops of a John Goodman. Still, Candy proudly occupied his middle zone and was obviously extremely popular; a moment in the documentary highlights how proud his Canadian hometown was of him. And significantly, at the end of the documentary, we discover that the Canadian police had closed off a length of freeway for Candy's funeral procession, with officers saluting as Candy's hearse drove by. People of my generation and older will recognize many of the famous interviewees, all old now, from Bill Murray to Dan Aykroyd to Steve Martin, Eugene Levy, Mel Brooks, Macaulay Culkin, Tom Hanks, Conan O'Brien, Catherine O'Hara, Martin Short, and so many more. It's hard to summarize a life in a two-hour documentary, but director Colin Hanks does a deftly sensitive job of portraying Candy's life in a good light, not shying away from issues of overweight, but showing how positively Candy's presence had affected those around him.