I Am Chris Farley

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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A documentary on the comedian Chris Farley's life with interviews with fellow comedians and friends like David Spade, Christina Applegate, Mike Myers, Tom Arnold and Dan Aykroyd and others.

It also has Chris siblings, most notably Kevin Farley in it to provide stories of what Chris was like growing up.

Although it entertains and occasionally gets emotional when you see a hardended cynic like David Spade become emotional and having a hard time speaking it does feel like a very sugar-coated version of Chris' life.

It doesn't really speak much of Chris' hardships and why he became an addict and any real bad things that he did (which I imagine he did do as we all do) and it pretty much paints him out as a saint clown with self esteem issues.

Now I'm not saying that he wasn't a lovely guy, I'm sure he was, but there is a constant sense of "they're holding something back to save the memory of Chris Farley".

It's also very simple in it's structure, it has a couple people talk about Chris as a child to Chris getting into acting and Chris on the set etc etc, no fancy cuts or effects, more like a memoir collection than a full on documentary where you get to know the man up close and personal.

But still, worth the watch for sure, especially if you're a Chris Farley fan.

Moving from beginning to end. I grew up watching SNL and Farley's films, and this documentary truly moved me. Other reviewers criticisms of this film seem to mainly be that his addictions and death did not get the time it deserves is silly to me and misses the point entirely. Just because it is a documentary, does not mean that it needs to be half positive and half the negatives to balance things out. This was made as a love letter to the man that touched so many of our lives in his short time on this earth and nothing more. It is said best towards the end of the film, that Chris was always hard on himself and never really saw what we all saw in him. This film seemingly is trying to say to Chris today, you WERE that amazing, and genuine, and hilarious, and here is how WE all saw you since you could never see it yourself. To add more about his death and dark moments would take away from this primary goal, and turn it into more of a tragedy than the celebration it was meant as. Great work, great documentary, and a great comedian lost too soon.

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.

"I Am Chris Farley" is a documentary about the late comedian. It takes archival footage and current interviews from family and other comedians to tell the tail of how a very talented young man lost his ongoing battle with drugs, alcohol, and fame.

Starting out as early as a child, Farley was always considered the class clown. He loved entertaining people and his sole purpose seemed to be just to make people happy. That's really kinda' sweet in itself. Most people could give a damn whether you're happy or not, but his sweetness went above and beyond. Even after he became a "star," he could still be found entertaining sick children, talking to homeless people, and just being an all-round nice person.

What troubled me most was how the majority of people--both family and friends--always wanted to remain comfortably dumb about his addictions, and these addictions did not manifest themselves later in his life. It seemed he had been dealing with an obsession with alcohol from his early years. He drank to excess MANY times, asking one of his friends (upon opening a liquor closet) "don't you just want to drink every last drop that's in here?" Many comedians who were interviewed admitted they knew what he was doing, but very few- -if any--really tried to get him help.

I had to re-think and re-think my review. It was extremely hard for me to review a biography on someone I really didn't care for that much. I did not care for his type of comedy because I've never been one for slapstick. I also did not care for most of his cronies: David Spade and Adam Sandler, in particular. Watching this bio, however, helped me understand just a little better where Chris Farley came from. He was never intentionally mean to anyone and only tried to make people laugh. The bio was well done.

This movie is unrated for language and brief nudity.