Film Review: I Like Movies

Excellent. Because I wanted to watch something on the plane despite swearing not to watch movies on the plane and work instead. I will no longer be assigning number ratings to films and novels going forward, since I only review ones that I have a strong opinion on. Thus, they will either be positive or negative; the devil will be in the details.

I Like Movies, directed by Chandler Levack, is a fantastic Canadian coming-of-age movie centered around Lawrence, a seventeen-year-old cinephile who lives in a Toronto suburb. As a self-appointed connoisseur of coming-of-age stories, this one has all the hallmarks and but executes in a unique way that doesn’t adhere to any of the norms. The references are manifold, the characters relatable and complex, and the movie feels lived in. This is one of my favourite movies that I’ve watched this year, hands down, and I’m ecstatic that it came from our little corner of the world, despite Lawrence’s obsession with American films and not becoming known as a Canadian filmmaker.

The movie has a simple storyline, starting with a presentation of a school project that Lawrence and his friend Matt put together. From the reaction of their teacher, their peers, and even Matt to the homemade movie and subsequent events, it is clear that Lawrence and Matt are social rejects at the school, not in the least due to Lawrence’s anti-social behaviour. He subsequently picks a few fights with his mother, finds a job at a video rental store, grows estranged from Matt, gets fired from his job at the video store, and then goes to college. Typical coming of age fare, highlighting themes of friendship, relationships with parents, and coming to terms with adulthood and maturity.

Unlike the 90s classics Stand by Me and The Breakfast Club, I Like Movies centers around Lawrence, the single protagonist, who is an insufferable brat. He shows little consideration for the feelings of other people: yelling at his mother, dismissing the interests and intelligence of his friend, and showing no remorse when his colleague is fired because of him. He thinks he is smarter than everyone, and thinks he has better taste too, including his friends and family. His visual portrayal is likely intentionally based off Toole’s Ignatius J. Reilly: rotund, unkempt, and wearing a flapped hunting cap out of all things. He possesses no self-awareness, and his world is centered juvenilely around himself.

Painfully, he reminds me of many young men in their teens that I interact with today, who spent crucial developmental years in the pandemic, coddled by technology and suffocated by parents. They all have the personality of an average Redditor: entitled, self-important, and chock-full of references and trivia. Not to excuse Lawrence’s behaviour, or that of the teenagers he reminds me of, but they are ultimately still children. Kind, empathetic children exist, but at that age, the blame doesn’t rest solely on them. These teenage boys are at the crossroads of adulthood, and how they develop and treat others in the coming years will determine what sorts of adults they will become. Perhaps that is why we feel a strange sense of empathy for Lawrence despite his unlikeable nature. Not unlike Superbad, though I venture that Lawrence is a bit more empathetic, and his personality is made out to be his flaw as opposed to a quirky loveable trait.

The accurate portrayal of the adolescent male might be credited to the director: despite the male-sounding name, Chandler Levack is a woman, which lends nuance and perspective to the film. At one point, Alana, Lawrence’s manager at work, screams that he is a nerdy, unlikable brat who will succeed in this world because the world is built for people like him. This sounds like a mouthpiece for Chandler’s own grievances about the world, and perhaps the film industry specifically. Very rarely is a coming of age movie about boys directed by a woman. Instead, men direct movies about boys, and women direct movies about girls: The Virgin Suicides, Turning Red, Bend it Like Beckham, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, and Twillight. However, the two films it reminds me most of are Diablo Cody’s Juno, featuring another sarcastic protagonist whose life is in pieces, and Greta Gerwig’s Ladybird, in virtually all plot elements: arguments with a mother who is the primary caregiver, a selfish protagonist, desire to leave the town they live in, a need to attend an expensive college in New York, and a tenuous relationship with best friend.

So it’s striking, but perhaps not surprising that the movie I find the most accurately portrays the modern teenage male is set in the early two thousands and directed by a woman. Part of the appeal is that I relate to Lawrence: ever since reading A Confederacy of Dunces, I’ve been terrified that others see me as an Ignatius J. Reilly. I was thrilled when I identified the opening as a Dickensian reference, only to be horrified when I realized it was low hanging fruit for losers like me to grab, and then immediately feel associated with Lawrence. His obsession during the first half of the film is with Punch Drunk Love, a movie which he excitedly talks about as by Paul Thomas Anderson, and which also features a bumbling obsessive oaf. A much nicer oaf, to be sure. Of course, it would be too much for Lawrence to find similarity between him and the protagonist.

I Like Movies ends with Lawrence going off to college in Canada, and trying to make amends with Matt, Alana, and make new friends. His attempts to reconcile with Matthew are fruitless, though it does show him meeting a nice group of classmates when he arrives at college; ultimately the movie ends on a positive note, portraying a Lawrence that has changed for the better, has become more interested in others, and will succeed in making genuine connections. In a way, the ending feels like it’s too easy for Lawrence. He’s been a selfish brat all movie and an unmitigated disaster in the lives of his coworkers, but he gets off just like that? No punishment, no downfall? Though I’m sure Levack wanted to show how easily insufferable nerdy boys get away with being selfish dolts, I also know that Lawrence is a teenager: just old enough to know better, and now, when he finally does, should be given the opportunity to do better. He’s just a kid whose heart is in the right place now, like many other teenagers who are learning to become whole adults.