We’re a month into 2026, and the festival circuit darlings will soon begin their rounds. Here are a few films to watch for in the meantime.

“JOHN CANDY: I LIKE ME”

Director: Colin Hanks

In this tearjerking doc, Colin Hanks, son of Tom, speaks with John Candy’s family, his friends, his admirers and, of course, his co-stars. Tom Hanks shares with Colin that Candy invited him to play in the movie “SPLASH” “with him.” “It was additive and inclusive,” the elder Hanks says. (Hanks also relates that Candy went out on an overnight drinking binge with Jack Nicholson, and then they filmed the racquetball scene. Candy used the exhaustion and his hangover to make the scene even funnier.)

Conan O’Brien relates that he once invited Candy, on a whim, to visit the offices of the Harvard Lampoo

“ART FOR EVERYBODY”

n, where O’Brien was editor. Candy flew commercial to Boston from Toronto; O’Brien says that Candy showed up with a camera around his neck. “You don’t try it, kid. You either do it or you don’t” was his advice to the future talk-show host. However, as O’Brien also warns, “This business is very unhealthy for people-pleasers.”

Indeed, Candy had a very hard time saying no, which led to appearing in many stinkers (by his own admission) produced by his friends. A vicious cycle was born of self-doubt, binge drinking, overeating and panic attacks. When he tried to lose weight and get healthier, he was told by industry insiders that people wanted “the fat Candy.” Finally, his heart gave out on March 4, 1994, when Candy was just 43.

These tragedies are leavened by the joys related by the doc’s subjects. We learn that John Hughes and John Candy would vacation together, finding their stride not only as colleagues on several films but also as friends. Macaulay Culkin, co-star of “UNCLE BUCK”, says that Candy was almost a surrogate father to him amid Culkin’s infamous family troubles. And in the ultimate how-old-am-I moment, Culkin relates that he’s now older than Candy ever was—and seven years older than Candy was when they made “UNCLE BUCK” together.

Mel Brooks shares how much Carl Reiner loved working with Candy on “SUMMER RENTAL”, and suggested him for the role of Barf in Brooks’s “SPACEBALLS.” “Two generations passed, and his memory is still as vivid and as lively as ever,” the spry 99-year-old Brooks says.

John Candy has been gone nearly thirty-two years, but the laughter he engendered continues to amuse us. And, judging by the love and admiration shared by the documentary’s subjects, it was his humanity, more than anything, that defined him.

Available on Amazon Prime.

“BIG ROCK BURNING”

Director: David Goldblum

The worst fires in Southern California’s history happened a year ago, and this entrancing short doc takes an intimate look at how the fires affected one particular Malibu neighborhood. These are everyday people, not the famous and rich, and yet their pain is just as real and just as raw as their wealthier neighbors.

The full story of the fires has yet to be told, but “BIG ROCK BURNING” provides at least one chapter in painting that terrible experience for posterity.

Now on PBS.

“ART FOR EVERYBODY”

Director: Miranda Yousef

Thomas Kincaid’s art became fashionable to own, what with its tableaux of an idealized America. But idealized for whom exactly? As many critics note, Kincaid’s artscape featured no gay people or people of color. Nevertheless, those who liked it bought it up in droves, making Kincaid a very rich man. We learn that Kincaid didn’t like Robert Mapplethorpe and other “challenging” artists. His daughters appear in the doc, many of them artists in their own right—and understandably upset at not being as important as the brand “Thomas Kincaid.” They also frankly call “THE VILLAGE,” a real-life planned community made to look like the inside of his artwork, a hypocritical venture considering how chaotic was Kincaid’s home life. Painting those idyllic scenes, we learn, was perhaps his way of healing from the damage he experienced in his young life.

After the money and the fame came the anxiety and depression. Kincaid eventually found Jesus, which helped for a time, but then came the epic drinking and allegedly trading in on his newfound religious faith to get people to trust him in shady business deals. Kincaid was also said to have groped women at events, among other sins.

After Kincaid died at 54 in 2012, the result of alcohol and valium, his vaults were opened and found to include much darker materials that he never put up for sale. Was this Kincaid’s way of tangling with his demons, or perhaps a wry counterpoint to the idealized scenescapes for which he became famous? We’ll never know.

Available on the Roku Channel.

“ANTIDOTE”

Director: James Jones

An entry in the long-running PBS Frontline series follows Christo Grozev of Bellingcat, a brave Bulgarian journalist investigating his own attempted assassination plot. Amid the ongoing madness of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Grozev and other courageous people continue to advocate for the truth—often suffering consequences as a result.

Available on PBS.

“VOICES FROM THE ABYSS”

Dirs. Irving Serrano & Víctor Rejón

This artsy short, shot in black and white, shows young men and women diving into the sea from Mexico cliffs. It’s an experiential piece that doesn’t seek to make stars of its young protagonists; rather, we are invited to see them as budding humans with hopes and dreams—and bravery to spare as they leap from several stories up into the drink.

“FOR THE LIVING”

Directors: Marc Bennett & Tim Roper

Genocide has been a staple of our species for millennia. Is there something broken about humans, or is this something that can be fixed? “FOR THE LIVING” offers no easy answers, though it does ask its audience to stretch their empathy muscles.

Among the subjects Bennett and Roper introduce are a now-elderly prosecutor at Nuremberg and a young Jewish man from London who bikes to Auschwitz as part of “RIDES FOR THE LIVING,” which seek to educate younger generations while simultaneously bringing people together for a good cause (and a healthy dose of outdoor activity). We also meet a rabbi who says he feels relatively safe in Krakow today, only 60 miles from the death camp—though he worries that, given rising antisemitism, his son and daughter don’t have “that luxury” anymore.

The justifications for genocide are explored, from dehumanization of the “other” to the need to repel an invasion (something heard much in the U.S. news of late). There are no easy answers in this tough documentary other than to take solace in such moments of humanity as learning that the Krakow Jewish Community Center has provided aid to over 300,000 Ukrainian refugees. As Ken Burns is so fond of saying, history doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.

“WADD: THE LIFE & TIMES OF JOHN C. HOLMES”

Director: Cass Paley

This 1999 documentary has been reissued for even stranger times. Cass Paley takes us on a most unusual tour through Holmes’s life, from humble beginnings to the most famously endowed porn star of the time. Soon enough drugs took over his life, with Holmes selling off possessions to feed his habit and even running drugs for the mob. From there, things only got worse, culminating in Holmes’s death from AIDS at 43.

“WADD” is a sad but often touching journey through the life of an American whose own success he torpedoed spectacularly.

“MUSIC BOX: COUNTING CROWS: HAVE YOU SEEN ME LATELY?”

Director: Amy Scott

Counting Crows frontman Adam Duritz has long been frank about his battles with mental illness. This on top of the natural awkwardness of growing up. And that was before he got famous. “How do you move toward hope…when you’re in front of the whole world?” he asks in this engrossing doc in HBO’s Music Box series.

Current and former bandmates David Immerglück, David Bryson, Charlie Gillingham, Dan Vickrey and Matt Malley share their stories about the band’s rise to stardom in the Bay Area. No less than T-Bone Burnett produced “AUGUST AND EVERYTHING AFTER,” which became a sensation and catapulted the band to superstardom.

However, it was not all smooth sailing. By his own admission, Duritz became the Springsteen-esque “leader” of the group. He recalls refusing to play “MR. JONES” on SNL and instead opting for “ROUND HERE.” We also learn that Robbie Robertson got them on a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame concert.

The Crows continue to play 30-plus years after “AUGUST,” with the band set to tour again this year. May they continue.

“RISE OF THE 49ERS”

Directors: Ryan Kelly and Nick Masco

One need not be a 9ers fan of a certain age to enjoy this engrossing docuseries about the Bay Area dynasty. For all Goliaths were once Davids.

Tom Brady, who serves as an executive producer on the project, also took time off from his current job as NFL commentator to appear in the doc.

The limited series plays on AMC and AMC+ February 1st and 2nd.

“MAGELLAN”

“MAGELLAN”

Director: Lav Diaz

Gael García Bernal stars as the 16th century Portuguese explorer in this uneven biodrama from director Lav Diaz. What is at stake for the New World is made plain in the initial scenes of South American native people’s normal lives about to be violently upended.

There’s a better film about Magellan to be made. I’ll be ready.

Now in select theaters.