I Like Movies

Its admirable when someone has obvious enthusiasm for a personal passion and is eager to share that sentiment with others. However, its something else entirely when that burgeoning zeal is expressed with condescension, arrogance and disdain toward others when they share their views on the subject. Thats the issue 17-year-old Canadian high school senior Lawrence Kweller (Isaiah Lehtinen) wrestles with when it comes to his love of movies. As an aspiring film student seeking to attend New York University after graduating as part of the class of 2003, he speaks about his obsession often quite naively as a pompous, self-absorbed aesthete who doesnt know as much as he thinks he does (and doesnt realize it either). He routinely puts down fellow ...

Chandler Levack's "I Like Movies" is both a warm embrace and a gentle slap across the face. It's a film that understands the early 2000s video store era not just as a setting, but as a state of mind, a last gasp of analog cinephilia before streaming flattened film culture into an endless scroll. For cinephiles of a certain age, this isn't just nostalgia; it's self-recognition. No wonder festival circuits embraced it with open arms.

The film's visual language reinforces this comfort. Shot in letterbox aspect ratio with a warm, 70s-inspired color palette of browns and oranges, "I Like Movies" feels like cozying up under a blanket to watch Saturday Night Live on a cold Ontario evening. The regional specificity, Burlington's strip malls, and...