This March, Chandler Levack brings Canadian audiences her official TIFF selection, hilarious, and altogether heartwarming feature-length debut, I Like Movies. The film tells the coming-of-age story of Lawrence, played by Isaiah Lehtinen, a 17-year-old cinephile from Burlington, Ontario, who struggles in his final year of high school in 2003 to discover what his future will bring. Lawrence holds out for an acceptance letter from the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU to study film, struggling to grapple with his future and money while experiencing a new job at the local video store, friendship troubles, interest in older women, and difficulties within his family. Levack’s direction and hilarious script, along with Lehtinen’s strong performance brings Canadian cinephiles just what they needed: their very own Ladybird-esque, coming-of-age film.

I often avoid watching Canadian films. There is a running joke in our family that as soon as we see that a film we are browsing is Canadian, we look for a different one. This could stem from how odd it feels to be watching a film and have locations that we know like Toronto or Scarborough being referenced, as it takes away from the escapism we often seek in films. This could also come from a very real bias we have towards films made outside of Hollywood, that regardless of the performances and quality, Hollywood films are “just better”. In trying to watch more Canadian films from Canadian filmmakers this year, I was excited when TIFF announced their January series “Canada’s Top 10”, featuring 10 of the best Canadian films of 2022, including I Like Movies. Described at a Q&A for this film as “Ladybird for incels and cinephiles”, and following its positive reception at both TIFF and CIFF, I knew I wanted to check it out.

From the very beginning, this films is hilarious. With non-stop laughs lasting throughout the film, the first act is jam-packed with jokes that anyone who grew up in Canada will appreciate. When asked why he doesn’t want to go to a Canadian school to study film, Lawrence replies to his mom, “ugh, because I don’t want to be, like, a Canadian filmmaker!”, followed by jokes about studying business administration at Guelph. At another point, Lawrence also responds to his mom’s questions about studying in the nation’s capital by calling it the nation’s “crap-ital”, which is a phrase I think every kid who grew up in Southern Ontario heard at some point in their public school years. But these jokes do not come from a place that seems malicious, from someone who thinks they are above Canada and its place in the film industry. Rather, these jokes come off genuine and purely kindhearted, from a naive boy who only has room to grow, and a writer who actually experienced adolescence in a similar town. What kid didn’t go to public school and poke fun at different universities, or cities outside of Toronto? What kid grew up in Southern Ontario and didn’t, at one point, think they were better than “all of this”, destined to leave Canada for something more exciting? These jokes truly brought the film home for me, and I can for sure say that I have not laughed this hard at a film in a long time.

Isaiah Lehtinen gives a hilarious and perfectly devastating performance as 17-year-old film bro Lawrence. His comedic timing is on point, and his ability to react to and play off the performances of all of the actors, including those playing his mother, his best friend, his classmates and his coworkers, all work perfectly to set the tone throughout the film. As his narcissism comes to hinder his relationships in the second act of the film, Lehtinen is perfectly able to shift the tone of his performance to capture the genuine emotions of this deeper side of the annoying, socially-inept film bro we are all too familiar with, while still maintaining that relatable humour and teenage boy essence that we have come to appreciate through his performance in the first act.

Along with Lehtinen’s performance, Levack’s writing works very well. Despite a slightly long third act, Levack’s script accomplished one of the most difficult tasks to this date; to make audiences sympathize with the very film bro that is Lawrence. While there is no lack of jokes throughout the film, Levack balances this with a beautifully sympathetic look at Lawrence. His story highlights the side him, and people alike, that we don’t often see or think about, rather looking at all the ways their outward narcissism and often irritating personalities make them socially-awkward. He is often times uncomfortably relatable despite his consistent unlikable qualities, making this film a very self-reflective film to watch for anyone so deeply obsessed with their passions, including cinephiles everywhere. By adding just enough depth to the character that we can sympathize with his actions and allowing space for Lawrence to grow, without trying to overcompensate for his mistakes and egotism, Levack’s writing of Lawrence and his overall story is something to be celebrated.

I Like Movies is guaranteed to become one of the Canadian coming-of-age classics. Like Ladybird, Levack takes a deeper look at this often unlikeable and somewhat socially-inept teenage character and transforms him into someone relatable, deep, and altogether human over just 99 minutes. And like Ladybird‘s personal connection with Sacramento, California, Levack perfectly captures the life of a teenage cinephile in Southern Ontario. Growing up is hard, and for Lawrence and many other teenage high school students, growing up in Ontario seems to be the worst thing in the world. For Lawrence and the small town cinephiles, for whom it seems like nobody appreciates film by “the great” directors like PTA or Kubrick, or wants to watch 3+ hour films on a Friday night, Levack never condemns the cinephile. She rather reminds us that while it is perfectly acceptable to be neurotic about our passions, it is just as important to stop and consider the interests and lives of those around us. With humour throughout its runtime, perfectly balanced with both heartbreaking performances and sweet moments in Lawrence’s final few months of high school in Burlington, Ontario, maybe we can all leave the theatre with a little more appreciation for where we grew up, those who supported us as we pursued our dreams, and for Canadian film as a whole.

I Live Movies (2022) will be released in theatres across Canada in March 2023.