Ryan Reynolds will host an eight-venue North American tour for I Like Me, a new documentary about the late comedian John Candy, with screenings taking place ahead of the film’s Oct. 10 release on Amazon Prime Video.
The events will include Reynolds on stage with “surprise guests and members of Candy’s inner circle including family and friends for moderated conversations,” according to a press release. Conversations at the screenings will be moderated by New York University professor Dan Pasternak and film programmer Kevin McCarthy. Reynolds said in a statement, “Movies bring people together and millions of people came together to watch John Candy. I am so excited to share our film on a big screen and to share the stage with some of the people who knew him best as they share their memories of the man.” Net proceeds from all screenings will benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
I Like Me, directed by Colin Hanks, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this year and received favorable notices from critics and festival attendees. The film uses previously unseen archival footage and new interviews to trace Candy’s career from SCTV ensemble work to Hollywood films. Johnny Oleksinski of the New York Post wrote that the documentary’s “heartfelt approach feels right and honest,” and said it portrays Candy as “a hardworking family man driven, in no small part, by a ticktock feeling that his life would be cut short.”
Several prominent actors and comedians appear in the film or lend their voices to the documentary, including Dan Aykroyd, Tom Hanks, Macaulay Culkin, Martin Short, Steve Martin, Catherine O’Hara and Andrea Martin. A Sept. 4 teaser released by Prime Video highlighted interviews with Bill Murray, Dave Thomas, Eugene Levy, Steve Martin, Catherine O’Hara, Dan Aykroyd, Conan O’Brien, Macaulay Culkin, Mel Brooks, Martin Short and Tom Hanks, as well as comments from Hanks’s children Chris and Jennifer Candy.
The scheduled tour dates are Sept. 23 at the Prospector Theater in Ridgefield, Connecticut; Sept. 24 at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia; Sept. 25 at the State Theatre in New Brunswick, New Jersey; Oct. 2 at the Ricardo Montalban Theatre in Los Angeles; Oct. 5 at the Chicago Theatre; Oct. 6 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Toronto; Oct. 8 at Kings Theatre in Brooklyn; and Oct. 14 at the Shubert Theatre in Boston. Organizers noted that tickets for the Ridgefield screening were not available at the time of the press release. Full ticketing information and links are being distributed through venue websites and the film’s promotional outlets.
Reynolds’s role as host follows a trend of high-profile talent anchoring theatrical and live events tied to documentary releases, pairing screenings with onstage conversations to provide context and draw audiences. The documentary’s theatrical tour precedes its streaming debut on Amazon Prime Video, giving audiences an opportunity to see restored and archival material on large screens and to hear firsthand recollections from those who worked with or knew Candy.
I Like Me situates Candy’s career within his personal life and the entertainment landscape of the 1970s through the early 1990s, focusing on his work on sketch comedy and in films such as Planes, Trains and Automobiles and Uncle Buck. The film’s use of unseen behind-the-scenes footage and contemporaneous interviews aims to illuminate both his comic gifts and his off-screen persona. Reception at TIFF and early reviews emphasize the documentary’s nostalgic and intimate approach rather than attempting a purely comprehensive biography.
Tickets for the screenings are on sale through participating venues; proceeds from the tour will be donated to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The documentary will be available for streaming on Amazon Prime Video beginning Oct. 10.