Matthew Luke Brady
"I remember one time when all the nuns in my Catholic grade school got around in a semicircle, me and Mom in the middle, and they said, 'Mrs. Farley, the children at school are laughing at Christopher, not with him.' I thought, 'Who cares? As long as they're laughing." - Quote by Chris FarleyI Am Chris Farley was probably my most anticipated documentary of 2015, right next to Amy. I always like these kind of documentary's, where we see an in depth look into the famous person life and get to know them more in person; Those are always the best. Chris Farley was a comedic actor that stared in ten movies and a couple of skits on TV and the greatest SNL players ever, until he's tragic death in 1997. I think it's about time we got a documentary about Farley as he was beloved by many people and today he's still being talked about, so making a documentary is a perfect time to start now. I finally got the chance to watch the documentary last Friday and I thought the documentary was okay, and it kind of sucks saying that as I really wanted to love it so badly.I think what the documentary dose so well is introducing us to the man himself Chris Farley, because the main focus of this documentary is on he's career on TV, movies and basically Farley in person. All of this is shown by old footage of Farley doing he's usual skits and Farley best friends telling us stuff that I didn't know about. All of that was well down and some of them had something interesting and funny to say about Farley. My only problem that I had with the whole documentary is that I felt like I didn't get a lot out of it if you know what I mean. The only things that I was interested in knowing before seeing the documentary is getting to know Farley more in person and he's drug addiction that later killed him. The good thing is that I got to know Farley a bit in person, but I felt like didn't get enough, Because after I finished watching "I Am Chris Farley" I quickly went online to look up Chris Farley and there was some much more details that went into more depth that the documentary didn't do. Yeah they're do bring up he's death and him going to rehab in the documentary but it didn't last very long has it quickly moved on. I just wished they would have gone more in depth on those important issues, and yeah you can say that maybe they didn't want to talk about it since it may be hard for them, But this is a "Documentary" and me as a viewer felt like I just didn't enough about the biggest issues in Farley's life which effected him deeply and made for a horrid sight. Well that's pretty much all my honest thoughts on "I Am Chris Farley". It's worth watching if you're interested or not. It's okay but not as great as I thought it was going to be.
dcarsonhagy
"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.
subxerogravity
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)
Nicole of ArchonCinemaReviews.com
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.Please check out our website for full reviews of all the recent releases.