Review: Be kind and rewind remarkable new Canadian video-store comedy I Like Movies – The Globe and Mail

I Like Motion pictures

Written and directed by Chandler Levack

Starring Isaiah Lehtinen, Krista Bridges and Romina D’ugo

Classification N/A; 99 minutes

Opens in choose theatres March 10

Critic’s Choose

Though lengthy overshadowed by American classics each within the John Hughes vein and extra trendy iterations equivalent to Superbad and Booksmart, Canada has its personal legacy of nice coming-of-age films. Suppose My American Cousin, Ginger Snaps and the newer Wildhood. And now, we will add writer-director Chandler Levack’s I Like Motion pictures to that esteemed canon.

Just lately nominated for a Canadian Display screen Award for finest modifying, Levack’s characteristic directorial debut first drew buzz at its 2022 Toronto Worldwide Movie Competition world premiere, the place critics and followers alike began instantly singing the film’s praises, resulting in sold-out screenings that first-time Canadian filmmakers – particularly these engaged on a micro-budget – might solely dream of.

Set in 2003, the archly comedian movie follows 17-year-old Lawrence Kweller (Isaiah Lehtinen in his debut performing position), a wry, sarcastic teen who longs to go to NYU movie faculty and turn into an acclaimed director like his idol Paul Thomas Anderson (whose movie Punch-Drunk Love Lawrence drags his finest good friend, Matt, to see at their native suburban Cineplex multiplex). Alongside Matt (Percy Hynes White), Lawrence is including that cinematic aptitude to his highschool’s yearbook film, although issues begin going off the rails shortly as the buddies’ visions don’t all the time align. Tensions particularly rise when Matt needs to carry on a celebrity editor – a lady (gasp!) – to assist transfer issues alongside.

In the meantime, Lawrence’s lofty desires are continually being introduced again all the way down to earth by his mom (Krista Bridges), who reminds Lawrence of their household’s less-than-lofty monetary actuality. New York is an awfully great distance from Burlington, Ont.

So, trying to find some fast money and a distraction from rising tensions with Matt, Lawrence will get a job at his native video retailer (Blockbuster meets Jumbo Video). In awe of his new environment, he shortly turns into infatuated together with his boss Alana, performed with aplomb by Romina D’ugo, who has her personal historical past within the movie business. This results in some supremely uncomfortable moments, performed to peak laughs.

The ensemble solid is improbable, with Bridges and Lehtinen as standouts. The younger Lehtinen particularly is bound to have a vivid future, enjoying Lawrence with precisely the correct mix of sarcasm, tenderness and acidity. Though Lawrence is usually unlikeable, awkward and alienating, he’s additionally dependable in his want to hunt out and devour an even bigger, extra thrilling world, to benefit from the total feast of burgeoning maturity.

Levack, a movie critic in her personal proper, has beforehand directed the TIFF-certified quick movie We Forgot to Break Up and award-worthy music movies for pop-punk band Pup. Right here, she attracts on her personal teenage expertise working at a video retailer, although the gender-swap by specializing in Lawrence is her try to show that ladies administrators needn’t be restricted to women-centric tales – a tactic that works nicely, giving what might in any other case be a prickly character quite a lot of depth and coronary heart.

Levack has carried out a outstanding job together with her feature-film debut, enjoying with tropes which have time-honoured traditions however are all the time in want of a refresh. In case you are in search of a wise, nostalgic throwback to the sorts of movies that marked the late-nineties and early aughts heyday of high-school films, then I Like Motion pictures deserves greater than a rental – see this in theatres, in the event you can.

Particular to The Globe and Mail

Plan your display screen time with the weekly What to Watch publication. Join at this time.

Adblock check (Why?)