I Like Movies

I Like Movies is a 2022 Canadian comedy-drama film written and directed by Chandler Levack. Set in the early 2000s, the film stars Isaiah Lehtinen as Lawrence, a socially inept 17-year-old cinephile who gets a job at a video store, where he forms a complicated friendship with his older female manager.

The film is produced by Lindsay Blair Goeldner with original score by Murray Lightburn from the Dears. Its cast also includes Romina D'Ugo, Krista Bridges, Percy Hynes White, Dan Beirne, Andy McQueen, Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll, and Alex Ateah.

Levack has described the film as being based in part on her own teenage job in a video store, although she has stated that she chose to write the central character as male out of a desire to push back against the popular notion that women filmmakers can only tell female-oriented stories. The project was first announced as receiving funding from Telefilm Canada's Talent to Watch program for emerging filmmakers in 2019, under the working title Rejects Night.

I Like Movies had its world premiere in the Discovery section of the Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2022. It was released theatrically in Canada on March 10, 2023, by Mongrel Media, and has been picked up for worldwide distribution by Visit Films.

Plot
Lawrence is a movie-loving 17-year-old. He is obsessed with everything cinema and spends most of his time with his best friend Matt. They primarily hang out together, enjoying their regular Saturday "Reject's Night" ritual. Lawrence is socially inept, and tends to say what he feels without filter, sometimes offending and embarrassing Matt. Their friendship starts to be challenged as they grow apart, after Lawrence gets a job at the Sequels video store. His work at the video store and his love for movies take him in one direction, and Matt develops a relationship with classmate Lauren P which takes him in another.

As Lawrence comes to deal with his life challenges, his relationship with his mother becomes fraught, while he develops a complex relationship with his boss, Alana.

At school, Matt and Lawrence had been in charge of the graduation video. Lawrence fails to show progress on it, so Matt invites Lauren P to join the pair as an editor. Lawrence rejects adding Lauren, so she and Matt take over the project, creating a rift between the two friends.

Lawrence struggles with his choices for graduation, while coming to grips with his place in the world and his complex relationship with his boss.

Cast

 * Isaiah Lehtinen as Lawrence Kweller
 * Romina D'Ugo as Alana, Lawrence's boss
 * Percy Hynes White as Matt Macarchuck
 * Alex Ateah as Shannon
 * Anand Rajaram as Mr Oleneck
 * Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll
 * Dan Beirne as Owen from Sequels management
 * Andy McQueen Brendan, Lawrence's co worker at Sequels
 * Eden Cupid as Lauren P
 * Krista Bridges as Terri Kweller, Lawrence's mother.
 * Tanner Zipchen video store Hottie

Production
Filmed in the Greater Toronto Area under COVID response mandates, the film achieved remarkable production values. For example, the full interior set for the fictional Sequels video store was fitted with props (dvds, shelving, computers, etc.) obtained from an actual Blockbuster Video store in Owen Sound, Ontario (vacant for 10 years).

Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 100% based on 35 reviews, with an average rating of 8/10. Rachel Ho of That Shelf praised Lehtinen's performance in the lead role, and wrote, "While based loosely on her own life, Levack's gender swap proves to be a fascinating element of the film. Though a young boy is the focus, the fact that the film is being told through a female lens is felt throughout. Even more interesting is the new perspective gained from the 2003 setting—suddenly that budding film bro doesn't seem so precocious. I Like Movies is deceptive in that sense; on the surface, it may appear to be a typical endearing coming-of-age tale steeped in early-2000s nostalgia. But there's a compelling narrative under the formula that highlights the exciting talent of a new filmmaker."

For Cult MTL, Alex Rose wrote that "Though obviously borrowing from retail-work staples of the video store era like Clerks, Empire Records or High Fidelity, Levack brings an incredible attention to detail to every frame of I Like Movies. Packed with MuchMusic-adjacent turn-of-the-century pop-punk (and a score by Murray A. Lightburn of the Dears), a truly Canadian sense of scale (much of Lawrence’s obsession with NYU also stems from his desire to avoid becoming a Canadian filmmaker — in his American-auteur-addled brain, nothing could be worse) and discussions of Jimmy Fallon’s unsatisfying run on Weekend Update, it should prove a potent antidote to Gen Z’s growing obsession with early 2000s aesthetics while also sending most people my age into a tizzy of anti-nostalgia."

The film was named to TIFF's annual year-end Canada's Top Ten list for 2022.

In 2023, Barry Hertz of The Globe and Mail named the film as one of the 23 best Canadian comedy films ever made.

Awards
At the 2022 Calgary International Film Festival, the film won the $10,000 RBC Emerging Artist Award.

The film won four awards at the Vancouver Film Critics Circle Awards 2022, for Best Canadian Film, Best Actor in a Canadian Film (Lehtinen), Supporting Actor in a Canadian Film (Hynes White) and Best Screenplay for a Canadian Film (Levack).

Simone Smith won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Editing at the 11th Canadian Screen Awards in 2023.