Good morning everyone and happy Thanksgiving! I type this message to you as I start Planes, Trains and Automobiles. It’s one of my all-time favourite movies, starring John Candy and Steve Martin, and just
happens to take place during the Thanksgiving holiday.
The first time I saw John Candy wasn’t with this film, though, it was in Home Alone. I remember towards the end of the film his character was riding in the back of some pickup truck with Kevin’s mum (played by Catherine O’Hara) as she and her family race to go back home after realising they had forgotten him.
There was something about Candy that made me immediately fall for him. Was it the warmth that his character brought on screen? Regardless, I knew at the time that the film was going to have a happy ending. And I wasn’t even aware of who John Candy was at the time.
It was about 15 years later that I watched Planes, Trains and Automobiles for the first time on Thanksgiving Day 2016. I was sitting on my bed in my flat in North London with a small pecan pie from Leon’s after having a silly meal at Byron’s Better Burgers. It wasn’t my favourite Thanksgiving, but I laughed some of the hardest I’ve ever done watching John Candy play Del Griffith, the shower ring curtain salesman.
All of that is a long preamble to this post — a special edition of Fitzie’s Film and TV Reviews, where your hoddler-in-chief reviews some of the things he’s seen on the television and big screen.
Today’s one and only film is I Like Me, a documentary about the late John Candy.
If I can sum it up in one word, it’d be this: Moving.
From the opening of Dan Akroyd’s eulogy to Candy, to the Canadian great’s struggles with anxiety and his father’s early death, the film touches on what a sweet and caring man John Candy was.
It’s rare to come across a person who so many people love so much. But this documentary showed what a force Candy was. From his time at Second City to his Hollywood stardom, everyone who encountered him seemed to love him. And he seemed to treat everyone like they were the biggest stars in the world – regardless if they were A-list actors or a bar fly.
And my overall takeaway from this was that many of the people who spoke on this documentary feel the way I did when I watched his appearance on Home Alone for the first time: Warmth. A gentle man who you could always count on, who would always treat you with care and respect.
I think Candy’s best performance comes in Planes, Trains and Automobiles, with his scene on the highway driving me into hysterics the first time I saw it. But his retort against Steve Martin’s character’s tirade in the second-third of the story is what defined the man John Candy — “I like me”.
5 out of 5 Fitzies
Fitzie’s track of the day: Every Time You Go Away, by Paul Young
And now for your links:
The Standard: “Randal Kolo Muani: Thomas Frank identifies ‘turning point’ for Tottenham star after PSG brace”
BBC: “’More identity’ – Frank takes heart from Spurs defeat at PSG”
The Athletic ($$): “PSG 5 Tottenham 3: Were there positives for Frank? How did Vitinha score that? How did Richarlison and Kolo Muani combine?”
LA Times: “‘You never stop thinking about John Candy’: How a pair of projects keep his legacy alive”
