By Sarah Kurchak

Dir: Chandler Levack. Canada, 2022. Film writer and filmmaker Chandler Levack’s debut feature is a thoroughly competent if somewhat by the book coming of age story that is elevated by its choice of subject: the budding film bro.

Made by and for people who will identify with the main character—perhaps with varying degrees of wincing self-awareness—I Like Movies follows Lawrence Kweller (Isaiah Lehtinen) through his final year of high school. Lawrence is a film buff who’s trapped in the suffocatingly small town Burlington, Ontario in the early 2000s. He has big problems and big dreams, and sometimes uses bluster about the latter to compensate for the former. Also, he can sometimes be a bit of a dick. He has one friend, Matt Macarchuk (Percy Hynes White), who hangs out with him, watches Saturday Night Live with him, and makes videos that have Swollen Members soundtracks with him, but Matt probably doesn’t even get Paul Thomas Anderson, so does he even count? In any case, Lawrence is planning on dropping him and moving on to bigger and better things when he gets the hell out of Burlington and goes to New York for film school.

There’s only one problem with his plan—other than the fact he hasn’t been accepted yet and applied to no backup schools—is that film school costs $90,000. And he has saved $0. In a last-ditch effort to start saving for his future, Lawrence talks his way into his ideal high school job: working at the local rental store, Sequels. It’s exciting at first, but he soon learns that there’s more to working life than forcing obscure choices on minimally interested customers and getting 10 free rentals a week.

With an impressive balance of compassion and clarity, Levack guides Lawrence through adolescent posturing, pain, low key life-ruining, shattered dreams, fledgling self-awareness, and growth. And even if it’s all been done before, it’s still charming to watch it happen through the lens of someone who’s also learning that there might—just might—be more to like than Kubrick. (And as an autistic person, I want to thank Levack for creating a character that is nerdy and pedantic without making any cheap allusions to him possibly being on the spectrum. It’s such a relief.)

The score by Murray Lightburn is an excellent touch, too. And a thrill for Lawrence’s real life music nerd counterparts. Which includes me. 3/5 stars.