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
Jurassic Park
Two paleontologists are invited to preview a new Central American theme park by an avuncular entrepreneur (Richard Attenborough). What they encounter is truly a walk on the wild side. Spielberg's jaw dropping adventure movie still kills on the big screen.
Turner & Constable
Filmed as a supplement to a blockbuster exhibition at Tate Britain happening right now, this doc in the popular Exhibition on Screen series allows us to view these competitive, complementary English landscape artists side by side.
The Adventures of Tintin
Could this be Spielberg's most underrated film? It's his only stab at animation, and it moves like Raiders of the Lost Ark on caffeine. The plotting may be antiquarian but the action never lets up. It's delirious stuff, often laugh-out-loud funny.
Ghost Elephants
Everyone's favourite German adventurer, Werner Herzog goes on the hunt for the largest land mammal on the planet, the fabled "ghost elephant" of the Angolan highlands -- that may, or may not, exist.
Miroirs No. 3
Following a car crash that kills her boyfriend, piano student Laura is physically unhurt but emotionally distraught. A local woman takes her in, but she gradually realizes she's in the midst of an eerie, mysterious family situation.
Image: © Schramm Film A4 Kopie
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.