{"id":200546,"date":"2025-09-04T21:23:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T21:23:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/200546\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T21:23:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T21:23:13","slug":"a-documentary-ode-to-john-candy-opens-tiff-from-ryan-reynolds-and-colin-hanks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/200546\/","title":{"rendered":"A documentary ode to John Candy opens TIFF, from Ryan Reynolds and Colin Hanks"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO (AP) \u2014 \u201cI wish I had more bad things to say about him,\u201d Bill Murray says in the opening moments of the documentary \u201cJohn Candy: I Like Me.\u201d<\/p>\n

It has always been hard to find a negative word about Candy. The great Canadian comedian and actor not only radiated a warm, down-to-earth friendliness in movies like \u201cPlanes, Trains and Automobiles,\u201d \u201cUncle Buck\u201d and \u201cThe Great Outdoors,\u201d he was that way off screen, too. As Mel Brooks says in the film, \u201cHe was a total actor because he was a total person.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJohn Candy: I Like Me,\u201d directed by Colin Hanks and produced by Ryan Reynolds, is a tribute not just to Candy the actor, but Candy, the man. On Thursday night, it premieres as the opening night film of the Toronto International Film Festival<\/a>. For a beloved Canadian icon like Candy, whose nickname was \u201cJohnny Toronto,\u201d the setting could hardly be more fitting. To reference Candy\u2019s cameo in \u201cThe Blues Brothers,\u201d it\u2019s an occasion that calls for orange whips, all around.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t tell you the amount of meetings we had about when the movie can be made, and maybe we can do this festival or that,\u201d Hanks says. \u201cAnd I just kept thinking in the back of my mind: Well, this is a gigantic waste of time. It should just be at Toronto. Period. The End.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJohn Candy: I Like Me,\u201d<\/a> which will debut on Prime Video on Oct. 10, is a kind of cinematic eulogy for Candy, who died of heart failure at the age of 43 in 1994. Long ago as that was, \u201cI Like Me\u201d is the first feature documentary to tackle Candy, who might be even more popular three decades after his death.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of me hates the fact that John maybe never really saw how beloved he was,\u201d Reynolds says. \u201cHe left something really lasting. He died of a heart failure and ironically the thing he left behind was his heart. That\u2019s the thing that stays.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hanks, Reynolds<\/a> and Candy\u2019s children, Jennifer and Chris Candy, spoke in interviews before the TIFF opening about the making of \u201cJohn Candy: I Like Me,\u201d the title of which comes from one of Candy\u2019s most memorable lines from \u201cTrains, Planes and Automobiles.\u201d But it also serves as a guiding ethos to the documentary.<\/p>\n

Candy, who grew up in working-class Ontario and whose father also died young, had his own long-range struggles with that loss. He also, through a people-pleasing smile, dealt with the sometimes insensitive way his size was discussed in the media. Says Reynolds: \u201cHe was self-effacing his work, but not self-loathing. He didn\u2019t make a sport of punching down, not even on himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe left, but he did leave us some tools to get through this,\u201d says Chris Candy, 40, speaking alongside his 45-year-old sister. \u201cThat would be through the way he raised us and also saying it\u2019s OK to talk to someone if you have heavy feelings.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the Candys, \u201cI Like Me\u201d is an extremely emotional experience but one they\u2019re grateful for. They have each navigated their own way through an upbringing marked by their father\u2019s loss. It was years before Chris could visit his father\u2019s grave site or rewatch his movies. Once he did, he was astonished at his father\u2019s talent.<\/p>\n

For Jennifer, her father\u2019s movies helped carry her through grief.<\/p>\n

\u201cI jumped in (and) watched everything. All through college, I made sure I had the whole DVD collection,\u201d she says. \u201cFor me that was a constant reminder to hear his voice. We had cassette tapes of his \u2018Radio Kandy\u2019 show that I would just listen to all the time in the car during high school.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hanks, whose directorial work includes the 2015 documentary \u201cAll Things Must Pass: The Rise and Fall of Tower Records,\u201d wanted to find a thread for the film that went beyond tribute. To him, the movie is about drilling down on what gave Candy such an everyman quality. What made him, to millions, like their Uncle Buck. Hanks experienced Candy\u2019s effect firsthand as a child visiting his father, Tom Hanks, on the set of \u201cSplash.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI have vivid memories of visiting on set. He was just one of my parents\u2019 friends, someone they worked with,\u201d says Hanks. \u201cHe had a way, even as a kid, of making you feel incredibly important.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI had been on the periphery of the most intense fame you can have, as well as a much smaller version myself,\u201d adds Hanks. \u201cIt is an adjustment. It is hard to navigate. Not that it\u2019s not amazing and great, but that idea of how much you can actually give of yourself to people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reynolds, born and raised in Vancouver, has been a fan of Candy\u2019s since growing up watching \u201cSCTV\u201d reruns. His fondness for Candy, in many ways, has been an influence throughout his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like in the bigger movies I\u2019m always either Del Griffith or Neil Page, from \u201cPlanes, Trains,\u201d says Reynolds. \u201cI tend to really fluctuate back and forth between those guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

As his own fame grew, alongside with his ability to take some authorship of his films, Reynolds has populated his movies with references to Candy. Easter eggs adorn the \u201cDeadpool\u201d films. In one moment, he utters the \u201cI like me,\u201d albeit in a much different context. Reynolds had the prop department make a mug with the same quote. A Chrysler LeBaron appears in the background of another scene. He even licensed the book \u201cThe Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains\u201d so it could make a cameo in all the \u201cDeadpool\u201d movies.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like having him around,\u201d says Reynolds. \u201cI feel safer. I feel better. I also feel maybe just a skosh more honest.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJohn was a good person when nobody was watching, and I think that\u2019s an increasingly scarce resource these days, in an age where everything is not only seen, it\u2019s perfection,\u201d Reynolds adds. \u201cIt\u2019s like an epidemic. All we see is perfection and curation. Nobody wants to try anything new because nobody\u2019s willing to suck at anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Jennifer and Chris, \u201cJohn Candy: I Like Me,\u201d awash in memories of their father,\u201d is a kind of time capsule that, like their dad\u2019s other movies and radio show recordings, will be long treasured. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m fortunate that I will always have this,\u201d says Chris. \u201cAnd I love it for that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO (AP) \u2014 \u201cI wish I had more bad things to say about him,\u201d Bill Murray says in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":200547,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[39965,435,111011,110673,434,171,57,6604,111012,15219,49626,53,111013,4519,61263,8790,85256,61,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-200546","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-bill-murray","9":"tag-celebrity","10":"tag-chris-candy","11":"tag-colin-hanks","12":"tag-documentaries","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-general-news","15":"tag-international-news","16":"tag-john-candy","17":"tag-mel-brooks","18":"tag-movie-premieres","19":"tag-movies","20":"tag-neil-page","21":"tag-ryan-reynolds","22":"tag-tom-hanks","23":"tag-toronto","24":"tag-toronto-international-film-festival","25":"tag-u-s-news","26":"tag-united-states","27":"tag-unitedstates","28":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115148135456479844","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}