Tears of a Clown who lived in a van down by the river

I AM CHRIS FARLEY (2015)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

I managed to elude Chris Farley from my moviegoing habits, as well as his Saturday Night Live viewings. To be fair, during the 90's, I had not seen Adam Sandler and Phil Hartman engaging in comical shenanigans on SNL (though I had seen some of their movies). But I have seen clips of Mr. Farley since and he was certainly a raucous, wildly out-of-control comedian who (if memory serves from having read about him in Entertainment Weekly in the 90's) drank 40 cups of coffee a day, engaged in drugs and alcohol and came through the screen, both big and small, as a runaway freight train ready to entertain. It is the sadness clouded by his comical outbursts that remains the most insightful aspect of the documentary, "I am Chris Farley."

Farley's fairly happy upbringing in Madison, Wisconsin is evoked whimsically, and his siblings and his father goofed around a lot. Dad (an oil company owner) was serious when he needed to be, yet he couldn't help but laugh about Chris's outrageous behavior in school. After Chris had done several improv shows at Chicago's Improv Olympic and Second City theatres, SNL in New York and breaking into the movie business expeditiously, he became a movie star with comedies like "Tommy Boy" and "Black Sheep." Reaching mainstream success in his early 30's, Chris had no time to adjust to his newfangled fame. His realization that having a really good time and knowing who your friends are and who may or may not have an ulterior motive became his cross to bear.

Most of "I Am Chris Farley" is tinged with sadness and regret, mostly because there was not enough of a career post-Chicago and SNL to see what he could really accomplish. In that sense, it is like hearing about John Belushi's premature death due to drugs - another comedian who had just barely tested the waters. Directors Brent Hodge and Derik Murray unveil precious moments with Chris's siblings and his own friends and guest co-hosts from SNL (including Adam Sandler, Mike Myers, Christina Applegate and many more). There are copious tidbits from Chris's partner-in-crime, David Spade, whose most revealing comment is that he was never the same again after Farley's passing. That is the most insightful moment, that and Chris's own father responded good-naturedly to Chris's pratfalls in school (dropping trou for one). The documentary doesn't exactly criticize the comedian or demonize his drug habits, thankfully. It is a reaffirmation of a lovable goofball who wanted to make people smile, but couldn't smile at himself.