John Sweet: I Like Me is an anomaly within the context of celeb documentaries. It accommodates few of the famous-person struggles which have change into clichés of the style — no scandal, no dependancy, no chapter, no notably objectionable habits. The comic was not with out his struggles, however it is a good film. And it’s made by Hollywood Good Son Colin Hanks, who met Sweet when Sweet co-starred together with his father, Tom, in 1984’s Splash.
“He was an incredibly engaging personality,” Colin Hanks remembers. “It takes a special kind of person to leave that kind of imprint on a kid.”
I Like Me, launched by Prime Video, got here to Hanks via producer Ryan Reynolds, who lengthy has had an affinity for Sweet and already had secured participation from Sweet’s youngsters, who equipped the manufacturing with dwelling films, scripts and different hallmarks from their father’s huge archives.
The ensuing movie is a touching homage to an entertainer who by some means held on to his sense of self regardless of dropping his father on his fifth birthday, battling anxiousness at a time when psychological well being wasn’t generally mentioned in mainstream tradition, and being grilled by journalists about his weight. The title comes from a well known Planes, Trains and Cars monologue wherein Sweet’s character, chummy salesman Del Griffith, responds to put-downs from Steve Martin’s unsympathetic promoting exec, Neal Web page, saying, “Think what you want about me. I’m not changing. I like me.”
Certainly one of Hanks’ best analysis finds was outtakes from Sweet’s Dwelling Alone improvisations. His function because the “polka king of the Midwest” is likely one of the blockbuster’s most memorable components, and director Chris Columbus dug up the dailies from his basement. That footage now doubles as a tribute to Sweet’s scene companion, Catherine O’Hara, who delivered Sweet’s eulogy in 1994 and died in January.
Hanks acknowledges that there’s a extra “salacious” model of the doc that attracts contrasts between Sweet and his two large-framed friends who died of drug overdoses, John Belushi and Chris Farley, however he selected to not go down that path. “It’s my job as a filmmaker to not create drama but to show where that drama actually existed and present it in a way that is engaging,” he says. “Everybody experiences trauma in some shape or form. It doesn’t have to be big-T trauma. But those personality traits — that gregarious, everybody-come-together energy — was what made John special. They were also learned coping mechanisms.”
The aim, in Hanks’ eyes, was to deepen the general public’s understanding of the person who helped to outline a era of comedy with Second Metropolis Tv, Brewster’s Hundreds of thousands, Spaceballs, Uncle Buck and Cool Runnings. “I remember thinking early on that John was this everyman, and people saw a quality in him that they connected with,” says Hanks. “What if the quote-unquote issue that our subject has is just as relatable as what everyone else goes through?”
This story first appeared in a June stand-alone situation of The Hollywood Reporter journal. To obtain the journal, click here to subscribe.
