I Am Chris Farley

Chicago's Second City comedy club, not a "van down by the river," was the first stop on Chris Farley's trajectory to stardom from his large Catholic family's home near Madison, Wisconsin, the film "I Am Chris Farley" explains.

Under the tutelage of "chief anarchist artist" Del Close, like "a Lamaze birth coach" who encouraged his portly prot�g� to fail onstage, Farley elevated his Red Arrow summer camp hijinks to a celebrated run on "Saturday Night Live," the "MA to his Second City BA."

Directors Brent Hodge and Derik Murray spent a little over a year interviewing Farley's family, friends and SNL cohorts, integrating home movies and archival footage - including motivational speaker and van-dweller Matt Foley, air-quoting Weekend Update correspondent Bennett Brauer, and angioplasty poster boy Bill Swerski, who had had "a baker's dozen of heart attacks," in "Da Bears" sketches - to create this bittersweet and engaging documentary about the 33-year-old who overdosed in 1997.

Using the frame of a Farley appearance on David Letterman (who readily agreed to share his show footage where he was introduced as "the human thunder ball"), "the iceberg that is Chris Farley" is plumbed through 25 interviews.

SNL creator Lorne Michaels called Farley "infuriatingly talented" and "the love child that Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi never had." Aykroyd himself, who worked with Farley on the "Coneheads" movie, likened Farley ("the innocent") and his buddy David Spade ("the jaded") to himself and his "Blues Brothers" partner (who also overdosed at 33), saying that "Chris had an automatic charisma like Belushi" and was "a perfect storm of comedy."

Guest host Christina Applegate said Farley had "a purity," effusive Mike Myers was influenced by his cast mate's commitment ("fatty fall down," as Farley said), calling him Evel Knievel, and Tom Arnold admitted that his friend was "a sweet guy . . . before midnight."

Jay Mohr appreciated that Farley, especially in his first leading role in "Tommy Boy," was "sensitive, kind, and vulnerable." But "he didn't love himself as much as others did," added Bob Odenkirk, and Farley's 17 stints in rehab didn't prevent the drug abuse that killed him.

The Blu-ray special feature is "The Farley Brothers...(and Sister)," sharing additional sibling interviews with a welcome focus on the eldest, sister Barbara, who was not included in the final cut. She noted that "half the neighborhood was us," but she wasn't included in many of her brothers' competitive games of touch football, Monopoly, "Tell Me If This Hurts," or basketball, primarily because they played "strip HORSE."

Eighteen years after his untimely death, this documentary is a welcome reminder of the comedian's continuing legacy.

"There are stars, comets, and precious jewels," said Mohr. "And there's Chris."

"I Am Chris Farley"
Blu-ray
$15.99
http://www.iamchrisfarley.com