TIFF 2022 REVIEW
Seventeen-year-old movie snob Lawrence Kweller eats, breathes, and dreams about films. He’s in his final year of high school and plans to attend NYU’s prestigious film program. But here’s the catch: Lawrence lacks the technical and social skills to cut it at film school. But these little details won’t stop a world-class narcissist like him from going after what he thinks he deserves.
To be fair, the aspiring filmmaker’s life hasn’t been easy. His exhausted single mother (Krista Bridges) has done the best she could since the family suffered a tragedy a few years back. Her son hasn’t fared very well, but his love of watching and shooting movies has helped him get through tough times.
Lawrence spends his free time watching Saturday Night Live and discussing movies with his best (and only) friend, Matt (Percy Hynes White). Their friendship is tested when Lawrence applies for his dream job at a video store called Sequels. The job eats up his free time and also boosts his ego. The aspiring cineaste shows off his film IQ by blabbering on about Kubrick and PTA with Sequels’ unimpressed patrons.
Sequels’ movie-hating manager Alana (Romina D’Ugo) calls out Lawrence for his diva attitude. He carries himself like Spielberg when he’s more of an Ed Wood. Forced outside his comfort zone, the aspiring filmmaker must work through his traumas and acknowledge his shortcomings if he hopes to live out his filmmaking dream.
I Like Movies is a thoughtful and compassionate examination of a young man’s struggle with his mental health. Lawrence isn’t defined by his mental health issues, even though it plays a significant role in the storey.
This movie works so well because writer-director Chandler Levack doesn’t sand down its prickly protagonist’s rough edges. Lawrence is a major dick, and he has a lot of growing up to do. His life is sad and messy, sure. But his toxic attitude is poisoning his relationships with the people he’s closest to, and he’s too self-absorbed to see it. I just sat and cringed as Lawrence stumbled through his many awkward encounters.
Shout out to Lehtinen for his outstanding work. It’s tough to make a character as thorny as Lawrence sympathetic. But Lehtinen pulls it off with charm to spare. You can’t help but root for the abrasive high schooler to finally figure things out.
I love what I Like Movies has to say about obsession. The movie focuses on a diehard cinephile, but this story applies to any passionate community.
Levack warns her audience about the razor-thin line between admiration and obsession.
There’s nothing wrong with having an extreme passion for what interests you. Passion brings people together to celebrate what they love. However, obsession breeds toxicity. Lawrence’s obsession with movies transforms him into a jerk because he behaves like a cultural gatekeeper.
For Lawrence, movies have become more than just a passion. They’ve become a part of his identity. So he sees disagreements about movies as an attack on him, and he overreacts.
You see this type of behaviour all the time on social media. If someone craps on a movie, the film’s defenders take it personally – even if they’re arguing over a movie that hasn’t been released yet.
I Like Movies takes place in Burlington in the early 2000s,and it plays like a love letter to that moment in time. It makes a perfect double feature with Domee Shi’s Turning Red, which takes place in Toronto around 2002.
If you grew up in the greater Toronto area in the late ‘90s and early 2000s, be prepared for a heavy dose of nostalgia. I won’t spoil the surprises, but some of the cultural references triggered synapses in my brain that have laid dormant for two decades.
Levack imbues the film with a warm, lived-in texture that brought me back to my teenage years. I Like Movies expertly recreates the joy and frustration of living in the era before broadband connections and smartphones.
I Like Movies captures the magical highs of a late-night watch party with your bestie. But it also captures the suffocating loneliness people experience when left alone.
I Like Movies will speak to film lovers of all ages – but especially if you came of age in the late ‘90s and early 2000s. Levack has crafted a brilliant commentary on cinephile culture and a touching portrait of a young man figuring out his place in the world.
I got a kick out of watching Lawrence embody film Twitter’s best and worst qualities. But please don’t think this story only appeals to movie nerds. I Like Movies is a funny, insightful, and heartfelt character study that works even if you can’t tell Paul Thomas Anderson from Paul Reubens.
Let me know your thoughts about I Like Movies on Twitter and in the comments below. If you enjoyed this review, please help out the site by sharing it on social media. And keep coming back to VSR for new reviews, interviews, and videos.
