John Candy: I Like Me

• Directed by Colin Hanks
• September 4, 2025 (TIFF) / October 10, 2025 (Prime Video)

A portrait of the Canadian actor John Candy.

Some documentaries are moving. Others are informative. John Candy: I Like Me manages to be both. This film is a loving tribute to John Candy. Not only does it chart his career but demonstrates his character. It’s a showcase of his talent and his warmth and the heart that made him loved by his friends and endeared him to the public.

We get a fairly complete picture of the man via an assortment of interviews with his celebrity friends. Dan Aykroyd, Mel Brooks, Chris Columbus, Macaulay Culkin who comes off with a sense of gratitude towards the man, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Steve Martin, Bill Murray, Catherine O’Hara, Tom Hanks who looked outclassed in the scene they showed from Splash, Martin Short, and Dave Thomas along with his son Chris, daughter Jennifer, and widow Rosemary mixed in with archival footage of those no longer with us.

Those are all people that either knew him well or felt they had something to contribute because they had an extended interaction with him that lasted more than a day. I bring that up because they also interviewed Conan O’Brien. He met him once. While O’Brien was at the Harvard Lampoon he and the rest of the staff convinced him to show up at Harvard and Candy gave O’Brien some advice. That is it. Nothing against Conan O’Brien. He just did not fit with all the rest.

The interviews themselves are like talking with an old friend reminiscing. They talk about him wanting to be Johnny Toronto or Dave Thomas talking about a party at Marty (Thomas’s words) Short’s that revealed a part of himself that Candy often hid. It is trading stories making this rather emotional for the viewer.

Candy was a gifted comedian, but also very good in drama. His speech in Planes, Trains and Automobiles to Steve Martin, and his speech to Tom Hanks in Splash are both shown here. Both are so real you have a hard time believing he was acting.

This does not just focus on his career, but his upbringing, and what contributed to the mindset and what caused his health problems and so many other things. Despite all the happiness and joy he brought people you get a picture of a not depressed person, but not as happy as he portrayed. You also see that being a people pleaser is it was also part of his health downfall. That and a series of unhealthy coping mechanisms shortened his talented life. By the end you’ll come away missing him and maybe even a bit upset over what could’ve been.

A few in the film expressed that he didn’t feel he quite had made it or he wasn’t confident in himself. Strangely though he made it in a way few ever can that wasn’t obvious at the time he was alive. He was beloved and embraced-good and bad. Candy had such an impact that they close down the entire highway for his funeral procession.

This is an intimate and personal account of the man that by the end shows you the impact he had on those whom he met. It wastes no time trying to lionize the man mostly because there was no need. He was a genuinely great figure in the lives of those he touched that they feel his loss even now. And you will too.

John Candy: I Like Me is a great documentary that will make you miss the legend. You learn a little something and feel a little loss.