Lawrence (Isaiah Lehtinen), a teenage cinephile, is convinced that he’s destined for bigger things than Burlington, Ontario can offer. Obsessed with Paul Thomas Anderson and Todd Solondz, he’s intent on attending film school at NYU before unleashing his directorial vision on an unsuspecting world. This despite the fact his artistic output is, well, underwhelming. Faced with the prospect of daunting tuition fees, he lands a job at a local video store where he promptly sets about condescending to customers, fixating on what his free rentals will be, and confounding his manager, Alana (Romina D’Ugo), and mother, Terri (Krista Bridges).
Well-appointed with both film references and endearing Canadiana, Chandler Levack’s humane comedy traces this pretentious curmudgeon’s path from practically sociopathic self-involvement to his first fraught encounters with self-awareness. Demonstrating tremendous understanding and affection for obsessives, Levack thoughtfully details the circumstances behind Lawrence’s fanaticism and anxiety. Through her impeccable scripting, we witness this film bro come of age thanks to the women in his life.
Presented by
Media Partner
Isaiah Lehtinen, Percy Hynes White, Anand Rajaram, Eden Cupid, Krista Bridges, Alex Ateah, Romina D’Ugo
Canada
2021
English
At VIFF Centre — Vancity Theatre
At The Rio
Book Tickets
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Love
This warm, thoughtful piece offers shrewd comic observations on modern dating as it trains a quizzical eye on the trysts of a female doctor, Marianne (Andrea Bræin Hovig), and her colleague, a gay male nurse, Tor (Tayo Cittadella Jacobsen).
Sex
Two chimney sweeps living in heterosexual marriages find their views on sexuality and gender challenged by a series of unexpected events. In a set of sharply scripted conversations, both men confront heretofore unexplored aspects of their identity.
3 Faces
Iranian filmmaker Panahi and actress Behnaz Jafari, both playing themselves, receive a video in which a distraught teenaged girl, whose acting dreams have been quashed appears to kill herself. Panahi and Jafari decide to investigate...
Dreams
The third installment in the Sex/Dreams/Love trilogy is another rich, absorbing tale. 17-year-old Johanne writes a confessional about her flirtation with a (female) teacher. But the writing is too good to stay private...
Transit
Trust the director of Phoenix and Barbara to re-imagine a WWII romantic intrigue into something unsettlingly contemporary. With occupying forces closing in, a German refugee (Franz Rogowski) assumes a dead writer's identity and flees to Marseille.
Credits
Producer
Lindsay Blair Goeldner
Screenwriter
Chandler Levack
Cinematography
Rico Moran
Editor
Simone Smith
Production Design
Claudia Dall’orso
Original Music
Murray A. Lightburn
Director
Chandler Levack
Chandler Levack grew up in Burlington, Ontario, and lives in Toronto where she studied cinema at the University of Toronto and screenwriting at the Canadian Film Centre. She has directed numerous music videos, earning two JUNO nominations, and is a veteran journalist and critic who has earned several National Magazine Awards for publications that include The Globe & Mail, The Village Voice, and Maisonneuve. I Like Movies is her feature debut.