I Like Movies is a 2022 Canadian comedy-drama film written and directed by Chandler Levack.[1] 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.[2]
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.[2] 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.[3]
I Like Movies had its world premiere in the Discovery section of the Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2022.[4] It was released theatrically in Canada on March 10, 2023, by Mongrel Media,[5][6] and has been picked up for worldwide distribution by Visit Films.[7]
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.
Filmed in the Greater Toronto Area under COVID response mandates, the film achieved remarkable production values. 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).[8]
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 98% of 42 critics' reviews are positive.The website's consensus reads: "A scrappy coming of age dramedy that pulls off a surprisingly moving tonal sleight of hand (...) is fiercely unsentimental about cinema nostalgia and all the better for it."[9]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 76 out of 100, based on 8 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[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."[11] 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."[12]
The film was named to TIFF's annual year-end Canada's Top Ten list for 2022.[13]
In 2023, Barry Hertz of The Globe and Mail named the film as one of the 23 best Canadian comedy films ever made.[14]
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