I Am Chris Farley

Chris Farley was one of those gifted people we lost too soon. I feel honored to have known this during my lifetime as I watched him on Saturday Night Live as a kid and laughed out loud with everything he did.

The documentary goes in depth about this shinning star that burned out to fast. Taking his funniest moments, some we know like the stuff he did on Saturday night live, and some only a few got to see from his time at Second City. It's a Similar format to a documentary about another comedian gone to soon, Bernie Mac called never Scared.

I am Chris Farley goes in depth about what made Chris Farley funny, (his upbringing as a child, his father, his likability) and goes into detail about his funniest moments, like the sketch were he competes with Patrick Swazye for a spot as a dancer at chip and dales. We get an entire recollection of that scene, how it came to be and what made it funny.

It's a story that needed to be told about one of the funniest men on this planet. Anyone who laughed out loud at Matt Foley motivational speaker, will be touched by this doc (so that's everyone)

I Am Chris Farley (2015)

*** (out of 4)

Nice and touching documentary about the short life of comedian Chris Farley who found himself skyrocket to fame very quickly but it all came crashing down when he died at the age of 33. Adam Sandler, Dan Aykroyd, Mike Myers, Christina Applegate, Tom Arnold, Jay Mohr, Jon Lovitz, Bob Saget, David Spade, Bo Derek and Lorne Michaels are some of the famous faces who share their memories of Farley but we also get interviews with two of his brothers who discuss his early life.

If you're a fan of Farley then you'll really enjoy this documentary that plays more like a tribute than anything else. We see a lot of footage from his Saturday Night Live days and we also get to hear some nice stories about what he was like as a child as well as his days in college where it seems his addiction to alcohol started. The documentary spends the majority of its time looking at the various highs that Farley had in his life while it pretty much skates around his addiction and early death. I think what I was most disappointed in is that the film really didn't shine enough of a spotlight on his death and it's really just mentioned in the passing moments. People talk about a dark side of Farley and the torments of fame but it pretty much is mentioned and the movie is then over.

Chris Farley was an actor who threw himself into every role he did, not so much making a convincing character from nothing, but being so brazenly out of control and limitless that, by the end of the film or the respective Saturday Night Live sketch, you practically had to believe he was the real deal. His natural presence for comedy and trying to find the right moments to be completely ribald and pleasantly sentimental signifies him as one of the most talented comedy actors in years, and ever since I was young, I couldn't help but think what kind of path he would've made for himself had he not died so young.

I Am Chris Farley, a ninety-four minute documentary that will air on SpikeTV throughout the month of August and see a subsequent release on DVD and Blu-Ray, is a blatant love-letter to the comedian, and it's the kind of love-letter that really exhausts itself to show you everything there is to love about its subject. That's the film's greatest strength and its most notable weakness because, while we get to see every angle of Farley's comic abilities explored, depressingly little time is spent developing the very real drug and alcohol problems he battled throughout his life, which eventually caused his untimely death in 1997.

Farley grew up in Madison, Wisconsin, the middle child of three rambunctious brothers, encouraged by a father who loved to see their comic spirits run wild. Kevin Farley, who is a spitting image of his younger brother, recalls Chris constantly battling for the most attention from everyone in his family and often deservedly getting it for being so captivating and uncontrollable. Chris was a person who loved to run in groups, joining football and rugby during his school days, and routinely accepting dares and attempting to impress everyone around him simply because of his desire to be seen. He competed for attention; something that would undoubtedly earn him a spotlight at acclaimed venues such as Chicago's Second City and, eventually, Saturday Night Live, where, even through numerous film deals, he saw his home and the ultimate goal of his career.

Directors Brett Hodge and Derik Murray work to juxtapose film and sketch clips over the course of Farley's career with footage of his colleagues such as Adam Sandler, David Spade, Tom Arnold, Bo Derek, and Bob Saget speaking about their late friend and costar. The result is a familiar but effective structure thanks to how well the selected film clips mesh with Farley's personal life. Furthermore, a great deal of time is spent discussing Farley's comic talent and what made him so charismatic. Saget states that Farley had a "not give a s*** pride," which allowed him to be as raucous as he wanted; that meant taking off his shirt, dancing crazily all over a set, screaming and yelling to create a convincing, hyperactive character, and falling on the ground - without putting his arms out or creating a cushion - authentically. Anything he could do to add to the flavor and the zaniness of a sketch, he would and he would constantly make it work.

Few conversations on a professional or personal level concerning Chris Farley remain entirely positive, given his later years and his tragic death, which is why it's frustrating to see I Am Chris Farley so nonchalantly gloss over the effects and the circumstances leading up to and resulting in his death. I don't ever recall the word "cocaine," the drug that eventually killed Farley, being said in the film, nor any recollections from the interviewees when they found out about Farley's death. It's no doubt that everyone in this film has a strong love and respect for the late comic (by the end of the film, we almost want to throw our hands in front of ourselves and say, "we believe you"), but there's a disconcerting factor of being so in love with the subject that talking bad about a certain aspect or feature is a no-no here.

This makes I Am Chris Farley somewhat of a more sentimental documentary than one willing to explore how insecurities in the comedy world effect a person, especially for Farley, whose image was largely made up of a bumbling fat guy with little coordination and self-esteem. Although all of the footage here is rich and the documentary is nicely structured, there's something unfortunate about one half of the subject being covered with specifics and the other half, arguably just as important, being whitewashed almost entirely in generalities.

Nonetheless, I Am Chris Farley is a celebration at heart; a celebration of a life lost too soon and a comic actor that left as big of a footprint on the genre as he was himself. He was a personality film, the entertainment world, and comedy was sincerely lucky to have.

Directed by: Brent Hodge and Derik Murray.

The Documentary, despite it being seemingly rushed a bit, is a nice touch to just give a final respect to a guy, who just couldn't help himself being nothing else but The Clown (in good sense). I will always cherish, as an European here in Hungary and Slovakia, his natural, raw talent of being The entertainer of his time, I have been and will always laugh at his great sketches and funny movies like Beverly Hills Ninja, which is really close to my heart to this day. He was simply a good-hearted guy who, with his purity, had to face with the classic enemy in the show business: To live up to his self image anytime he could, and was doing it with everything he could pull out of himself. We get you Chris Farley, and we love you for it. RIP!

"As I stumble through this life, help me to create more laughter than tears, dispense more happiness than gloom, spread more cheer than despair.

Never let me become so indifferent, that I will fail to see the wonders in the eyes of a child, or the twinkle in the eyes of the aged.

Never let me forget that my total effort is to cheer people, make them happy, and forget momentarily, all the unpleasantness in their lives.

And in my final moment, may I hear You whisper: "When you made My people smile, you made Me smile."

Within the first five minutes of I Am Chris Farley, you will be overcome with the sense of loss and grief. We go back to when Chris was just a child and see his siblings talking about their departed brother, and the loss of a beloved family member becomes instantaneously too real. You will laugh, a lot, you will cry, a lot, but most of all you will miss him, a lot.

I Am Chris Farley is a documentary told with love and respect for the person, not a glorifyingly tacky exploration of demons (a la an E! True Hollywood Story episode). It celebrates Farley, his warm and tender nature and natural ability to touch our funny bones. And while it must touch upon the factors that resulted in his death, those minor notes are not the point of the documentary.

Instead, I Am Chris Farley does a wonderful job of highlighting the man. Taking time to focus on little gems in his personality and comedic habits, bringing them full circle - showing that perhaps Farley never deviated much from that sensitive kid from Wisconsin who wanted to be liked. Some people may criticize the film for glossing over the darker components of his life; however, any audience member with a semblance of empathy will be able to infer the cause of death, without needing the documentary to explicitly go into the sordid details.

To be frank, I don't know how the directors, Brent Hodge and Derik Murray, were able to sway so many individuals to participate in this film, but I am incredibly happy that they did. With seemingly no connection to Center City, SNL, Wisconsin or any of the comedic actors involved in this documentary, they were able garner the approval of Farley's friends and family and tell the quintessential Chris Farley story. Hodge and Murray are able to capture the magic that was Farley in this narrative, and convey the love and talent of the man.

I Am Chris Farley starts with his family and up bringing in Madison Wisconsin, told through anecdotes from his brothers that will have you chuckling and saying to yourself "yup, that sounds like Chris." Though, like most people, you never had the opportunity to meet the energetically larger than life individual, and your only perception of him is through a screen. From there, we follow Chris to college and get a more comprehensive view of the man and how he came to pursue comedy as a profession. Onward to Chicago, then New York, then Hollywood and then...

In the hour and half documentary, you will feel as though you too knew and were able to call Chris Farley a friend. And the end of I Am Chris Farley will hurt, and though you know he wouldn't want you to cry, you just won't be able to stop yourself.

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