A First Look at “John Candy: I Like Me”
Producer Ryan Reynolds and Director Colin Hanks pose for photos with John Candy’s children, Jennifer and Christopher Candy, at the premiere of “John Candy: I Like Me” during the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 4, 2025.
If you’re a 90s kid or older, there’s a great chance you grew up with John Candy—a lovable goof with outstanding wit that brought himself to every role. He got his start on the Canadian version of Saturday Night Live—Second City Television (SCTV), alongside Catherine O’Hara, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Martin Short, and others who make appearances in the documentary through new interviews and archival footage. After years in television, Candy started in feature films with his role as Private Foley in Steven Spielberg's 1941 (1979), a satirical slapstick comedy about Californians preparing for an invasion from the Japanese after Pearl Harbour.
Candy continued to work with actors Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi in The Blues Brothers (1980), and got his breakout role as Ox in another war comedy, Stripes (1981) next to Bill Murray and Harold Ramis. Candy was also doing another run of SCTV at the time and continued his steady rise to stardom throughout the 80s, hitting the peak of his career with some of my favourite films Spaceballs (1987), Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (1987), and Uncle Buck (1989). A lot of people like Home Alone (1990), but I only really tolerate it for the scenes with O’Hara and Candy—I cringe when Macaulay Culkin screams or sets a new trap for the robbers.
Candy’s last film was Wagon’s East (1994) where he plays the grizzled alcoholic wagon master, James Harlow, tasked with leading a group of misfit settlers back to their homes on the East Coast. While Michael Moore’s Canadian Bacon would be released the following year starring Candy, the beloved Canadian comic would not see its premiere. Candy died on the set of Wagons East in Durango, Mexico, on March 4, 1994. He was 43 years old.
Photo of John Candy. Courtesy of Candy family.
In John Candy: I Like Me, director Colin Hanks explores the life and legacy of Canada’s most beloved comedic icon, starting with his memorial service at St. Basil’s Church in Toronto, Ontario, two weeks after his death. We return to this moment at the end of the film with O’Hara’s tear-jerking eulogy, and in between, Hanks uses a VCR rewinding effect to travel back in time and visit key moments of Candy’s life, including his private life with stories and home videos provided by his family. His wife Rosemary Hobor and their children, Christopher and Jennifer Candy, share fond memories of their father who loved being a family man—but sometimes his work took him away from this happy place for too long. Candy embraced the bottle and like most comics, developed anxiety over his performance for others, not wanting to disappoint them for his personal needs he routinely neglected.
There is a lot of detail in John Candy: I Like Me that you won’t find on Wikipedia, including the multi-generational home he grew up in after his father’s death at 35, and how Candy redefined “the fat man” of comedy. The documentary also goes deeper into Candy's business venture with Wayne Gretzky to buy the Canadian Football League’s Toronto Argonauts—something that likely resonated with the film’s headlining producer, Ryan Reynolds who recently invested millions in the Wrexham AFC underdogs.
No one has a bad thing to say about Candy—not even Bill Murray who opens the film alluding to a story that turns out to be just another story about Candy’s improvisational acting—which is why Hanks’s film feels more like a tribute documentary. Personally, I didn’t mind. It’s been over 30 years since Candy passed—I wasn’t even alive when he died—and we are still reminiscing on his life and work. Baby boomers will remember him as SCTV’s Johnny LaRue, the unscrupulous street-beat reporter, or as Yosh from the polka duo, The Shmenge Brothers, with brother Stan played by Eugene Levy. Yet younger generations like myself first knew him as Uncle Buck or Barf from the Star Wars parody, Spaceballs, later being old enough to watch his more raunchy military comedies.
But if you’ve never heard of John Candy, you’ve likely met Gus Polinski, the Polka King of the Midwest who, every year at Christmas, helps Kate McCallister (Catherine O’Hara) get home to her forgotten son, Kevin (Macaulay Culkin). While I’m not the biggest fan of Home Alone, the documentary shows unused improv scenes between Candy and O’Hara that make you bust a gut wondering how they can both keep a straight face. The once-child-now-adult actor, Culkin also appears in the documentary sharing his experiences on set with Candy and just how attuned he was to other people. Even though Culkin wasn’t open about his exploitative parents as a child, “John cared when not a lot of people did,” he says, and always treated child actors as his equals.
John Candy’s family - wife Rosemary Hobor and children Jennifer Candy-Sullivan and Christopher Candy - at the premiere of “John Candy: I Like Me” during the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 4, 2025.
Yet Candy’s legacy is best described in his nickname, Johnny Toronto, a nod to his patriotism for the city he grew up in. Candy was a kind and humble everyman, grounded by his family, and stayed true to himself throughout his time in Hollywood, which was admired by working class Canadians. His fellow comics and actors teased him for the name, but in this documentary everyone admits Candy became the name. It’s why people liked Candy when he was rising to fame and why we continue to cherish his memory, because he was your regular funny man with a knack for sketch comedy who made it to the top with a loving family and friends by his side. It wasn’t always easy and he was taken from us too soon, but at least we have great stories to remember him by.
John Candy: I Like Me premiered at the 50th Toronto International Film Festival on opening night, September 4, 2025, with a star-studded cast and crew in attendance, including director Colin Hanks, producers Ryan Reynolds, Sean Stuart, Glen Zipper, George Dewey, and Johnny Pariseau, executive producer Ashley Fox, editor and producer Shane Reid, composer Tyler Strickland, and film participants Christopher Candy, Jennifer Candy-Sullian, Rosemary Hobor, and Eugene Levy. The documentary will debut globally on Prime Video on October 10, 2025.
