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‘I Like Movies’ DVD (review)

Freestyle Digital Media

I honestly don’t understand why they say dramas that have a couple of comedic moments are actually comedies. I Like Movies has a couple of laugh out loud moments, but just a couple and for the most part, they do exactly NOTHING to lighten the drama we witness in the rest of the film.

The IMDB description of this film says, “Lawrence Kweller, a socially inept 17-year old cinephile, gets a job at a video store, where he forms a complicated friendship with his older female manager.”

That’s a good start. The truth is Lawrence Kwelle, a socially inept 17 year old, in the aftermath of severe family trauma, struggles for human connection as the end of high school and an uncertain future looms. He gets a job at a local video store and goes on a journey of self discovery.

This film was nominated for 12 festival awards and won 4 of them. Chandler Levack, the writer/director won awards at Calgary, Miami and Santa Barbara film festivals. He won for good reasons.

First he can write. This is a very good story. There are really only four characters in the film and they are all richly woven and relatable. Considering it was his first feature the cohesiveness of the three acts is laudable, The story has a beginning, middle and end. That’s more than we can say for a lot of first features.

The cast is excellent. There are really four characters of note in the film and I think that’s one of the reasons it works so well. Lawrence, played by Isaiah Lehtinen plays our poor, doughy teen with emotional challenges and a complicated family life. Percy Hynes White, recently of Wednesday, plays his only friend, Matt. Krista Bridges plays his mom and Romina D’Ugo plays Alana, his manager at the video store.

Isaiah Lehtinen is talented. The authentic emotion he brings to the character is interesting and compelling. He was well on his way to becoming a fine Canadian “that guy,” but with I Like Movies he shows himself to be capable of leading a story.

Percy Hynes White puts in a strong performance as Lehtinen’s best friend. You can see his feelings of compassion and sadness on the screen and we can feel his conflict and guilt as he makes tough decisions as the film unfolds.

Krista Bridges, a true, dyed in the wool, “that guy,” and her 122 acting credits plays Lehtinen’s mother. 122!!! Can we just take a moment and appreciate someone with the resilience to hammer out 122 performances. It will be 125 by the end of 2025. She’s a journeywoman’s journeywoman and out of respect for her and the craft of acting, everyone should see this film. She’s incredible in a limited role. She waffles back and forth as a conflicted single mom dealing with a troubled son. Is she coddling him in the face of his pain, while denying her own pain for love of her son. It’s an incredibly complex role and she pulls it off with magnificent authenticity. There’s a particularly difficult scene at dinner where she and her son trade horrible insults and it’s a reminder that only the people that love us the most can hurt us so badly.

Lastly, we have Romina D’Ugo, Lehtinen’s manager at the video store. Her patience and kindness are tested to their limits as she takes on an emotionally troubled employee and tries to make it work with him. There is a particular scene where she dramatically explains a key part of her life amongst the shelves of videos that hits the viewer like a hammer. It is raw, emotional, believable and far too real.

This film is about a mental health journey for a teen as much as it is about anything else. This is one of the challenges I have with the film. Journeys like this are long and rife with challenges and they don’t get resolved in relatively short third acts, regardless of how much we want to wrap up the story.

The technical side of this film is much of what you would expect for a low budget indie film. The lighting is too low and the sets are super simple. It doesn’t actually hurt the story at all so I only mention them in passing. The editing, on the other hand, is a major highlight. There is almost no wasted motion in the film and that is rare in a first feature. The film’s editor, Simone Smith, was nominated for best editing in a feature from the Canadian Director’s Guild and won the Achievement in Editing award at the Canadian Screen Awards. We have to thank for taking Levack’s writing and raw footage and turning it into an eminently watchable and enjoyable debut.

Just remember, this is NOT a comedy.

As a comedy it gets 2 of 5 stars.
As a drama with a couple of comedic moments, it gets 4 of 5 stars.

 

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